LIBRARY OF TRIBUNE EXTRAS 


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AUGUST, 1889. 


NEW EMPIRES 



IN THE 


NORTHWEST. 


“ GO WEST.”— Horace Greeley. 


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THE TRIBUNE ASSOCIATION, 
NEW-YORK. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


Introduction 

SOUTH DAKOTA. 

I— At The Threshold 

II— On the Missouri 

III— The Indian Question 

IV— ' The New Capital 

V— Pierre, Old and New . 

VI— Among the Farmers 

VII— Aberdeen 

VHI— Stories of Mr. Greeley 

IX— Contest for Statehood 

X— Fighting for Civil Liberty 

NORTH DAKOTA. 

XI— Bonanza Farms 

XII— The City of Grand Forks 

Xm-A Sportsman’s Paradise 

XIV—' The Devil’s Lake Country 

XV— Unerring Signs of Progress 

XVI— Bismarck 

XVII— Rivalries of Politics 

MONTANA. 

XVIII— A Country of Varied Resources 
XIX— The Yellowstone Valley.. 


Page. • 
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-• 2 
.. 4 

6 

.. 9 

.. II 
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24 


27 
29 ' 

31 


33 ; 


35 

37 


40 ' 
42 | 


Page. 


XX— Military Garrison Life 43 

XXI— Across the Wyoming Border 45 

XXII— In the Cattle Country 4 7 

XXIII— Openings for Settlers.. 49 

XXIV— Irrigation 51 

XXV— Mining in a New Country 52 

XXVI— A Reign of Terror 54 

XXVII— A Mountain Capital 58 

XXYHI— The Modern Mining Camp 60 

* XXIX— Great Falls C2 

XXX— The Political Outlook 64 

XXXI— Enlightened Policy 67 

WASHINGTON. 

XXXII— The Eastern Belt 70 

XXXIII— At Puget Sound 72 

XXXIV— Some Aspects of Olympia 73 

XXXV— Fortunate Tacoma.. 75 

XXXVI— The Far Northwest 76 

XXXVII— Among the Black Hills 78 

South Dakota Statistics 80 

Government Lands and How to Get 
Them 83 


1 



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73 


LIBRARY OF TRIBUNE EXTBAS. 


VOL. I. 


AUGUST, 1880. 


NO. 8. 


Copyright; 1S89 .* By The Nf.w-York Tribune. 

NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


THE DAKOTAS, MONTANA AND WASHINGTON. 


RESOURCES, PROGRESS, INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPERITY OF FOUR 

GREAT COMMONWEALTHS. 


“GO WES T.”— 

The faith of the Founder of The Tribune 
in the natuial resources and inevitable pros- 
perity of the West was tersely , expressed ' lV 
two words of advice to Americans, young and 
old. What was with him the substance of 
things hoped for is now the evidence of things 
seen. Thousands, and even minions of Ameri- 
cans, who have followed his wii^e4) counsel and 
“ gone West,’ 5 have laid there tk^jfoiinflfttions 
of mighty industrial empires, and opened, vast 
areas of agricultural and mineral lands as the 
most promising fields for new enterprise and 
immigration on the face of the earth. 

The Tribune under Mr. Greeley's successor, 
Mr. Whitelaw Reid, has steadily kept abreast 
of the westward march of empire. Corre- 
spondence from the Territories has been one 
of the permanent features of its files. On 
seveial occasions experienced members of its 
staff have been sent to the Far West on a 
roving commission to explore localities which 
weie unknown to Eastern readers, and to re- 
veal the wonderful progress made by Ameiican 
(enterprise in developing hidden sources of 
National wealth, and in opening fertile regions 
where hundreds of thousands of thiifty and 
ambitious settlers were finding prosperous 
homes and rapidly getting on in the world. 
The late Z. L. White, for many years the head 
of its Washington bureau, and an accomplished 
journalist of mature judgment, was a pioneer 
in describing the mineral resources of the 
Western mountain ranges, and his admirable 
series of letters did much to direct the progress 
of settlement and to attract reserves of Eastern 
capital to the newer distiicts and more remote 
territorial frontiers. The admission of four 
Northwestern States to the Union this year of- 
fered another opportunity, of which The 
Tribune promptly took advantage. One of 
its most versatile and accomplished staff corre- 
spondents, Lemuel Ely Quigg, was sent to the 
Dakotas, Montana and Washington to record 
the progress which these new Commonwealths 
had made, and to forecast the era of growth 
and prosperity which would inevitably follow 
the acquisition of the dignity of membership 
in the Union. 


Horace Greeley. 

This series of letters from the new States 
ha$ ^attracted the attention and commanded 
thfe jdtertst of thousands of American readers. 
Animated and incisive in style, comprehensive 
in-^^cpP 6 ’ a ^d candid and vigorous in treat- 
ment,^ it hasljcovered the entire range of human 
activity.- yi^he Northwest, and brought before 
the the picturesque features, local col- 

on^g-‘ > arid characteristic elements of pioneer 
tife-and advancing civilization. In response 
to pressing demands from all quarters of the 
Union these letters are republished in the pres- 
ent number of the Library of Tribune Extras, 
in order that the series may be read consec- 
utively and the information contained in it 
deliberately digested. These letters, as col- 
lected, form a popular handbook on the Da- 
kotas, Montana and Washington of the high- 
est practical utility. 

It was impossible for our correspondent to 
cover in his itinerary every promising town in 
the new States ; but every important centre 
of industry and population was visited, and no 
section with an existing record of progress as 
well as a future of unlimited expectations be- 
fore it was neglected. The letters deal with 
all the varied industrial interests in every 
stage of development. There is information 
in them for every class of settlers, artisans and 
immigrants ; and the series, as brought to- 
gether and handsomely printed in this vol- 
ume, will inevitably impart a powerful impulse 
to the rapid process of filling up the new States 
with an intelligent and industrious population. 
Nowhere else are such opportunities offered to 
workingmen and people of moderate means to 
make homes for their families where pros- 
perity will await them. The Tribune, after 
laboring arduously as the chief and most in- 
fluential journal of the Republican party to 
secure the admission of the Dakotas, Montana 
and Washington into the Union, has considered 
it a happy privilege to direct public attention 
to them in the most commanding way. It 
issues this volume as an earnest of its good 
wishes in speeding them on their journey to 
prosperity, influence and power. 


2 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


i. 


ON THE THRESHOLD . 


MEN AND THINGS IN A GROWING COUNTRY. 


EIOTJX FALLS, THE GATE CITY; HER CONDITION, 
HER PROSPECTS, HER HOPES AND 
HER NEEDS. 

Sioux Falls, Dakota, April 10. 

In attempting to picture what the typical 
Westerner, with a fond pride all his own, loves 
to call the “ wild and woolly West,” it is most 
appropriate that the beginning should be made 
here where the first settlement was effected upon 
Dakota soil. There are Wests and there are 
Wests, but the “ wild and woolly West,” the 
West wherein a solitary teepee or mud-hut grows 
within thirty days into an incorporated city with 
a Mayor and a Common Council, a fire department 
and a National bank, or may be, too, a daily 
newspaper and a university— this is the great 
Northwest. Its geographical limits are a subject 
of much contention. Minneapolis insists that 
the “ wild and woolly West” begins with the 
Falls of Minnehaha, and that St. Paul is not 
in it. St. Paul earnestly dissents from this view, 
and to make her claim the more emphatic her 
newspapers not infrequently start their depart- 
ment of local news with the “ .wild and woolly” 
headline. 

Under these circumstances it would be presump- 
tion to undertake to define the geographical 
boundaries of this delectable region. But in 
Minneapolis I met a man of commercial and social 
prominence who pointed out a handsome block 
of buildings, and said “ Isn’t that a noble struct- 
ure ?” 

It was a noble structure, there could be no 
doubt of that. 

“ That building,” he continued proudly, “ cost 
$500,000— yes, sir, $500,000! Two years ago 
there was a church there; I’m a member of it. 
It was put up in 1865, and the lot then cost 
us $600. Well, sir, we sold it to the people 
who own that building for $110,000. Then, sir, 
we built us another church for $60,000 odd, made 
our clergyman a handsome present, and put 
$40,000 on bond and mortgage at 8 per cent. 
That, sir,” he concluded triumphantlv, “ that’s 
the way we boom the Gospel out here!” 

There was nothing irreverent in this. It 
was said naturally and sincerely, but where 
else under the sun could such a phrase 
as “ boom the Gospel” be heard, save only in 
“ the wild and woolly West” ? 

Dakota, all glowing with satisfaction at 
the victorious issue of her long struggle with 
the Democracy in Washington, and with hope 
for her future as one of the members of the sister- 
hood of States, Dakota is astir with one grand 
and mighty boom. You feel it in the strong, 
hearty grasp with which her people take you 
by the hand. You see it in the quick and rest- 
less flashing of their eyes and in every motion 
of their incessantly active bodies. They have 
been a long while, as whiles go in this country, 
malting their opportunity, but they have it at 
last, and they know they have it.' Settlers are 
coming in by droves every day. Houses are 


starting up in such numbers that the township 
map of yesterday is useless to-day. Right here 
in Sioux Falls a» I drow around this morning 
I counted 1 68 new residences in course of con- 
struction, and the ground is being broken for 
more at the rate of a dozen per day. Nor is this 
any evanescent spurt. It is a progressive move- 
ment that has been going on for ten years. The 
city, as it is to-day, has been built within that 
time, two-thirds of it within the last four years. 
One of the most active of its citizens, who built 
the first frame shanty down by the falls twenty 
years ago, who came here when the place was 
a wilderness broken only by a frontier military 
post, and whose cash capital on arrival was 75 
cents, surveyed the city on behalf of the Govern- 
ment, and then concluded to settle. He is now 
the chief factor in a National bank, the owner 
of a score of handsome dwelling-houses, and is 
building at this moment a great block of jasper 
buildings, a one-hundred-thousand-dollar theatre, 
a cotton mill, and a motor street railway. What 
is the use of being surprised at what you hear 
of Western progress and opportunity when this 
is what you can actually see ? 

On the train coming hither I chanced to meet a 
Western specimen, who struck me then as mon- 
strously amusing. Whether he was really so droll 
as I thought is now a question. He was a very 
“ tough” -looking major, with a face of dark 
bronze, mustaches that stuck out far beyond his 
cheeks, a huge slouched hat, an antique and faded 
flannel shirt, trousers that ballooned, so to speak, 
at the knees, and a coat that was old in War times. 
To a group of Eastern men, dudish by contrast 
with him, he was descanting in most extravagant 
terms of the wonders of his country. It was the 
most magnificent land in the world : there never 
was nor could be anything like it; the finest tim- 
ber, the richest soil, the choicest game, the most 
splendid everything ! And, as for the town itself, 
no human language was powerful enough to do it 
even the faintest approach of justice. Curious to 
know where this Canaan lay, I ventured a query. 

“ It’s in Montana, sir, the Eden of States!” 

“ What’s the name of the town ?” 

“ Buzzard’s Gulch!” 

Happy name,” said I. “ Many inhabitants ?” 

“ Many ? Well, I should say so. There was 
60T) when I left six weeks ago, and there’ll be 
900, I know, by the time I get back. We’ve got 
electric lights and a grand opera-house that’ll 
hold the hull dern town!” 

Interpreted in the light of the fact that the pop- 
ulation of this Territory is increasing at the rate 
of 500 per day, it wouldn’t be remarkable if the 
claim of the man from Buzzard’s Gulch were hap- 
pily realized. 

To those people in the East— and they are by no 
means all dead yet— who think that the “ hardy 
settlers” of this region are in constant danger of 
their lives from Indians, or are subjected to week- 
ly blizzards that take the roofs from houses or 
bury whole villages under the snow, Sioux Falls 
would be a revelation. On the day last week 
when six inches of snow fell in Richmond, the 
thermometer here marked 50 degrees as its lowest 
extreme, and as for Indians, the appearance of a 
red man in Sioux Falls, whence but twenty short 
years ago settlers were driven away, often minus 
their hair, excites universal curiosity. People 
stop on the streets to watch him. Children run 
out from houses to catch a glimpse of him, and he 
is eyed by all and guyed by many as an Arab in 
his native dress would be in the streets of New- 
York. There is but one place in the Territory 
where an Indian can be seen in his natural con- 
ditions without maldng a trip into the reserva- 
tions. At the same time, as I shall hereafter ex- 
plain, the Indian question is all-paramount in 
South Dakota, and upon its solution the prosperity 
of the new State will in the largest measure de- 
pend. 

It is difficult to comprehend where the social 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


3 


and commercial forces come from that build up, 
almost before one knows it, these handsome and 
well-appointed cities of the plains. Here, lor in- 
stance, are four large colleges, a State prison of 
the first class, two immense dour mills, gasworks, 
packing-houses, foundries by the score, a deaf- 
mute school, quarries, brickyards, breweries and 
at least 12,000 people, and all these have come in 
'during a period practically of less than four years. 
The every-day needs of the people are being as 
well supplied here as anywhere else. They do not 
depend on other comm ur 'ties. They get what 
they want, and get it themtelves. The whole town 
is moved by a common impulse. If you have a 
spoonful of honest red blood in your veins, you 
<jan’t help but contribute to the general current. 
Tlu* spirit of push and enterprise has so completely 
taken hold of the people that its effects are felt 
on everything. One man’s interests go because 
-everybody else’s are going. Naturally the class 
of people attracted by these conditions is socially 
and morally superior. Fifteen churches iind no 
difficulty in obtaining congregations, nor the 
means wherewith to erect and maintain costly and 
handsome edifices. The Protestant Episcopal 
Cathedral of All Souls, for which the ground has 
been broken, will be rapidly constructed, and will 
be in every way an impressive structure. This is 
the memorial church which John Jacob Astor is 
building for Bishop Hare, in memory of the late 
Mrs. Astor, whose deep interest in Western mis- 
sions was manifested during her life by many 
beneficent deeds. Sioux Falls is also the seat of 
the Roman Catholic episcopate, and in another 
year St. Rose’s Academy will be in operation under 
Bishop Marty’s personal direction. 

Nature has been kind to Sioux Falls, in- 
closing the city on all sides the Big Sioux River 
winds in an S-like channel falling from a series 
of magnificent rocks. In a run of half a mile the 
river falls ninety-one feet over six solid wails of 
jasper. A water-power is thus rendered available 
for industrial purposes scarcely inferior to that 
developed by the Falls of St. Anthony at Minne- 
apolis. In the river and in the enormous quartz- 
ite formations that serve as its bed and peep up- 
ward through the earth for many miles around, 
the future prospects of the city are largely found. 
This rock is a pure jasper, and already four large 
firms employing 800 men are at work blasting and 
breaking it for building and paving stones^ 
Geologists describe it as a metamorphic rock thrown 
up at least 10,000 years ago. The deposit ap- 
pears to be about 3,000 feet deep and extends 
over twenty-five square miles of territory. Its 
hardness is 6uch that saws make no impression 
upon it whatever. It simply chews them up. But 
that which renders the handling of it cheap and 
enables the quarries here to compete in Chicago 
markets, 600 miles distant, with Wisconsin gran- 
ite, is its quality of breaking to a line, which it 
does as easily and neatly as chalk. With 40 per 
cent of the hardness of a diamond, this jasper 
takes a perfect polish and is used in all the 
Western cities now for ornamental columns, 
pilasters and monuments. Such powerful ma- 
chinery was required to obtain this polish that 
one of the firms handling jasper was encouraged 
to attempt to utilize the petrified wood of Ari- 
zona in the manufacture of chalcedony. Its 
success was so perfect that it cornered the entire 
silicified forest and now works out at its leisure 
wonderful specimens of this agate wood. Its 
smallest blocks contain countless thousands of 
interblended colors, vivid and startling in their 
marvellous richness or pale and faint with the 
daintiest hues. Within a square inch are often 
to be seen the red of the rose, the pink of the 
6almon, the gorgeous yellow of the salamander, 
the green of a budding wheat-field and the blue of 
an inky sea; and then dying away from these 
milder colors, with perhaps a field of chocolate or 
snowy white to peep through, comes every tint, 
every shade the spectroscope has dreamed of. 


It goes without saying that Sioux Falls covets 
a capitol. So does every other city in South 
Dakota, and the feeling of rivalry, while in no 
6euse bitter, runs, nevertheless, high and deep. 
The location of Sioux Falls is against her, so far 
as concerns her hope of becoming the capital 
city. She is to South Dakota what Fargo is to 
North Dakota, and what Omaha is to Nebraska— 
the gate CJiy. Commercially, this is immensely to 
her advantage, for the people of the West always 
buy their goods from a point east of them. If 
Sioux Falls realizes her commercial ambition -and 
there is no reason, with her water-power and her 
easternmost situation, why she shouldn’t— she will 
be a great point of supply and distribution for the 
State of South Dakota. Yankton will be her 
only very dangerous antagonist. But the Western 
people usually prefer central capitals, and aro 
always loath to give an individual town too many 
advantages. This sentiment will tell strongly 
against Sioux Fails. On the other hand, pene- 
trated by no less than five railroad systems, she 
has a strong, though quiet, influence at work for 
her. I was told in Chicago, and also in St. 
Paul, that the railroad presidents had distinctly 
agreed among themselves not to attempt the ex- 
ertion of the slightest influence upon the capital 
question They may be relied upon, I dare say, 
not to do any active lobbying. But the railroad 
men are only human, and they would doubtless 
look with satisfaction on that placing of the 
capital which wouli not necessitate the extension 
of theic lines. They all come into Sioux Falls 
and into Watertown, and they probably think 
that either Sioux Falls or Watertown would be a 
nice place for the capital. Yankton, Huron, 
Pierre, Watertown, Mitchell. Chamberlain. Aber- 
deen— all these are struggling for the prize, and 
all are prepared to bid high. 

Sioux Falls to-day most stands in need of manu- 
factories and wholesale houses. Yesterday a man 
who came here on a tour of inspection from Ver- 
mont toid me he had decided to put up a cotton 
mill immediately. Ex-Senator Sabin has been 
looking around the town for several days, and 
talks quietly aoout a new $250,000 bank. Money 
is lending on improved real estate for 8 per cent. 
Plenty of such loans can be safely made, if 
capitalists look sharp whom they deal with. The 
class of houses now being built in Sioux Falls 
are homes, most of them costing from $3,000 to 
$10,000. The sound of the builder’s hammer is 
heard in every block, and the houses are occupied 
before the paint on their doors is dry. Most of 
them are carrying small mortgages, and the in- 
variable interest is 8 per cent, payable semi-annu- 
ally. 

The importance of public schools escapes no 
Western community, and in Sioux Falls the peo- 
ple have been liberal and public-spirited to a 
degree unusual even in towns of its sort. The 
collegiate institutions are all under the auspices 
of religious societies. Bishop Hare, to whose 
tireless energy the city is indebted in more pap 
ticulars than those that concern his church, has 
had the College of All Souls busily at work for 
four years. It is a college for young women 
and a grammar school for boys. The Baptists 
have founded and endowed and are successfully 
conducting a university for young people of both 
sexes. All these various church institutions pos. 
sess buildings of a fine type, but none sur- 
pass the common schools of the city, upon which 
money and thought have been affectionately lav. 
ished. A graded system is in operation which 
terminates in a high school course and affords 
the people of Sioux Falls as fair a chance to 
educate their children as can be obtained in any 
ordinary Eastern village. 

No wonder the people of Sioux Falls wear a 
cheerful countenance. Their city, marching for. 
ward at a pace as steady as it is rapid, is estab. 
lished upon a substantial foundation and is pros- 
perous because it has fairly earned prosperity. 
No one who wants to work is without work, and 
his earning capacity is limited only by his in- 


4 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


dustry and ability. Nobody is preferred because 
lie happens to be the son of somebody else. So- 
ciety does not regulate the warmth of its attach- 
ment by the number of a man’s well-defined and 
authenticated grandfathers stowed away in the 
Sioux Falls cemetery. The capitalist and the 
car-driver meet on a common plane and each is 
as good as the other. The car-driver says 
“ Hello, Tom!” to the capitalist, and the capitalist 
replies “ Gimme a cigar,” to the car-driver. All 
meet together at night, in the lobbies of the prin- 
cipal hotels, and with one voice, sympathetic 
through all its modulations, lawyer, doctor, judge 
and laborer “ boom” Sioux Falls, and give busi- 
ness each to the other. In the hotel lobbies the 
lawyer secures his retainers, the doctor feels your 
pulse and gives you a pill, the merchant sells 
you a bill of goods, the builder draws his specifica- 
tions, and the conveyancer writes his deeds. 
Stop there long enough and any one you want to 
see will be sure to come in, ready to talk busi- 
ness, ethics, politics, theology, science or art- 
provided the view you take is favorable to Sioux 
Falls and calculated to promote its prosperity. 

L. E. Q. 


II. 


ON THE MISSOURI. 


SUBSTANTIAL PROSPERITY AT YANKTON. 


SOME (PACTS ABOUT THE WEATHER AMD THE 
60IIi— DOMESTIC OOMMERCE— YANKTON’S 
UNIQUE WATER AND MOTIVE 
POWER SUPPLY. 

Yankton, South Dakota, April 16. 

What the Dakotan most resents is an expres- 
sion of doubt or suspicion as to his weather. 
Any remark, no matter how harmless, in which 
the word “ blizzard” occurs sets him a-going 
directly. He will spread before you whole acres 
of signal service reports showing that the climate 
of Dakota is really that of a Southern State, 
and he will lead you to believe that he intends 
next spring to start an orange grove. He has 
got by heart a set and formal address which he 
fires at you without a halt or a break, full of wise 
statements about the isothermal lines and the 
warm currents from Japan. It appears that 
there is an air current known as the Chinook 
winds specially heated for Dakota somewhere in 
the Indian Ocea'n, and when the weather gets a 
little chilly the Dakotans turn on their Chinook 
current. 

Undoubtedly the climate of this Northwestern 
country is much misunderstood in the East, for 
which circumstance the newspaper funny men 
are held responsible. They have done Dakota 
more harm, say the people here, than fifty 
carloads of signal service reports can correct. 
Low temperatures in this latitude are accompanied 
by such delightful atmospheric conditions that 
you rather welcome them. One goes without 
one’s overcoat when the mercury is in the neigh- 
borhood of zero, and feels all the better for it. 
There is little snow or rain, little cloudy weather. 
For ivonths and months together, often for half 


the year, the sun’s rays will fall unobscured 
through a sky of perfect blue. But when storms 
do come, you want to be ready for them. They 
lose no time. They finish up their work and go 
off as quickly as possible, but they manage to 
put in considerable business while they are at it. 
Southern Dakota is one vast prairie land, with 
only an occasional gently sloping mound, rising 
from ten to thirty feet above the immeasurable 
plain. This is no obstacle to the wind, serving 
only to give a direction and a channel to its 
destructive course. 

But for several reasons the blizzards are not 
especially minded. Shelter is the only necessary 
provision against them, for here tliev leave no 
such deposit of snow behind them as was left 
by the great Eastern blizzard of March, 1888. 
Here they are a sudden, vicious storm, quickly 
over, and always followed by warm, brilliant 
weather. In the main it is unquestionably true 
that Dakota weather is ideal. Its cold is a dry, 
healthy cold, with pure, bracing air and clear 
bright sunshine. It is not variable. It does 
not begin with a warm glow in the morning, and 
wind up with a dreary mist at night. 

Next to his weather, the Dakotan felicitates 
himself upon his soil, and he can furnish any 
quantity of proof that it will grow anything. He 
will explain that Dakota was once covered by a 
great continental glacier, which, suddenly thrown 
by a turn the earth took upon its axis from an 
arctic to a temperate zone, melted and produced 
floods, and ran along in their path, grinding down 
the mountains, and leaving the present great 
plains of Dakota strewn with drift. For centuries 
the whole region was one vast lake, at the bottom 
of which mud was precipitated, full of vegetable 
substances. This lake mud is now the soil of the 
country, richer than ever by reason of the de- 
cayed prairie grasses that year after year have 
fallen and rotted upon the plains. He brings the 
testimony of half a hundred eminent geologists 
to support his theory, and then points you to the 
dense blackness of the earth as his plough turns 
it up. 

Yankton’s soil is her hope and her dependence. 
She is the outlet of an immense agricultural re- 
gion, embracing about 20,000 farms, devoted 
chiefly to the growth of corn and flax and to the 
development of stock. Seventy bushels of corn 
to the acre is regarded as a moderate result to be 
obtained with the physical advantages natural to 
these prairies. The farmers’ homes in Yankton 
County are as large and comfortable as those to 
be found in Western Pennsylvania, and are main- 
tained in a style that tells its own story of gen- 
eral prosperity. No less than 647 cars were re- 
quired in 1888 in which to ship the grain products 
of the farms about Yankton; 316 more were filled 
with the Hour and feed of native manufacture; 
250 were occupied by Yankton cattle, and 325 by 
Yankton hogs; 125 carloads of hay w r ere shipped, 
and altogether this little community of 4,000 
people sent out the surprising shipment of 2,419 
carloads of native goods. They brought back for 
their own supply 2,025 carloads of foreign goods, 
completing a traffic which must be regarded as 
anything but mean. 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 




Yankton is on the Missouri River, or, at least, 
was this morning. r lhe Missouri, however, ap- 
pears to have a mind of its own, and when it takes 
a notion it skips oif in one direction or another, 
coldly abandoning the towns that border on it 
Ihen, as if tired of wandering, it will shift its 
channel again and come back. Yankton can never 
tell just where the river is. Yankton goes to bed 
with the river washing the chalk bluffs which lie 
at the foot of the town. It wakes up with the 
river as much as two miles away. The philosophy 
of this extraordinary conduct is found in the soft 
bed over which the river flows. It is a deposit 
brought down from the sources not only of the 
Missouri, but of all the great rivers that flow into 
it, and this deposit forms successions of bars. 
The country round about is very low, and as these 
bars are washed away the channel shifts, often 
causing great overflows that do immense damage 
to the people who are foolish enough to farm with- 
in the imperilled territory. Many people are 
tempted to take the risks by reason of the wonder- 
ful richness of the low lands. Yankton’s protec- 
tion against the river’s treacherous disposition is 
a long line of chalk cliff whifch is likely to prove 
not only a wall of defence but a source of wealth 
to t lie people. They are beginning to think they 
have in these cliffs as ample a fortune as Sioux 
Falls possesses in its jasper rock. Blocks of the 
chalk were recently taken to Chicago and tested 
as the foundation ingredient for cement, and a 
syndicate of capitalists from that city, the princi- 
pal of whom is an Armour, has purchased a site 
and is about to erect a cement factory. 

Yankton is regarded by the rest of Dakota as a 
primeval town. Her antiquity is alluded to in 
almost reverential tones. She is as much as 
thirty years old, and an old log house exists which 
is pointed out to visitors with the same sort of 
respect that characterizes New-Yorkers when they 
■show strangers Fraunce’s Tavern. Upon one oc- 
casion, just after the terrible New-Ulm massacre 
in 1 863, all that was left of animate and civilized 
Dakota was crowded into a corral 300 feet 
square, in the heart of Yankton, waiting for an 
attack from the hostile Sioux. Governor Ziebach, 
the leader of this devoted band, is still in Yank- 
ton, and tells a graphic story of the fateful hours 
they spent in their stockade. The savages were 
all around them, and occasionally one or two ap- 
peared on the bluffs. But the threatened descent 
was not attempted. The settlers were too well 
prepared for it. This was the last Indian trouble 
in Dakota, and now that the redskins have grown 
civilized and lazy they would as soon think of 
working as of fighting. The Government gives 
them all they can gorge and wear, and they live 
the idle, shiftless, filthy life that is the only thing 
to expect of an ignorant race that has no motive 
for self-improvement. 

With its age Yankton has acquired a conserva- 
tism in strange contrast to the rest of Dakota. 
Its people look with suspicion upon “ booms.” 
Some restless folks from Sioux Falls have been 
recently buying up Yankton real estate at a great 
rate, paying SI 0,000 and SI 2, 000 for lots of forty 
acres on the edge of the town, and taking all they 
can get. Such speculations would set other towns 
crazy, and real estate options would fly around 
from hand to hand so fast you couldn’t keep track 
of them. But the Yankton people, while much in- 
terested, do not get excited. They bank for their 
future upon their natural advantages, and not 
upon temporary spurts in the town-lot market. 

None of these advantages is so much talked 
about as the subterranean lake from which the 
city draws its water and its motive power. It 
has been practically demonstrated that at a 
depth of from 500* ‘to 3,000 feet directly under 
the city there exists an immense body of water, 
supplied from high levels— probably the Rocky 
Mountains. It is not merely a stream such as is 
often found in this country under bed rock. It 
must be a lake, for tapped at fifteen different 


points it rushes forth with tremendous power, 
chemically the same everywhere, and without 
being weakened either in force or in supply 
no matter where nor how often it is tapped* 
The city obtains all its water through an artesian 
well sunk to a depth of about 600 feet. Two 
reservoirs holding 40,000 gallons each have been 
built on a bluff, and into them a six-inch pipe 
delivers the stream. This entire apparatus cost 
the city $3, 000, and for that picayune sum they 
get all the water they or twice their number 
can possibly use. There is no machinery to get out 
of order, and no use lor watchman or engineer. 
The entire thing consists of a shaft of iron pipe 
and a couple of tubs. It never fails to operate. 
But there it runs night and day, and there it 
must run forever. No wonder Yankton, with her 
4,000 people, can afford to spend $40,000 for a 
public school house. Needless to say, the water 
rent at Yankton is reasonable. 

An immediate stop was put to the use of steam 
by the discovery of this novel power. Engines 
were laid away to rust or sold for what they 
would fetch. Fires were put out, windmills 
locked. People who required a motor drilled 
a hole in the ground, slid a pipe through it, and 
let the water turn their wheel and give motion to 
»their machinery. The fire company, supplied 
from the city’s reservoirs, found that they could 
throw a stream over the highest building in town, 
and promptly sold their engine to a less fortunate 
community. The owner of a brick-yard combined 
with the company operating the electric lighting 
plant, and procured from a six-inch shaft a stream 
of 2,000 gallons per minute, with a pressure of 
fifty-six pounds to the square inch, or about 
35-horse power, brought into play with a turbine 
wheel. With this costless and exhaustless motor 
at hand manufactories are being rapidly estab- 
lished in Yankton, and with the coming of the 
new railroad lines that are being pushed forward 
rapidly, several more are promised. 

Two great Western systems, the Chicago and 
Northwestern and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. 
Paul, already run several daily trains into Yank- 
ton, and within the next six months at least 
two other lines will arrive. The Manitoba is 
now as fa? on its way as Sioux Falls, giving 
the points it strikes an air-line directly to the 
lakes. A road in course of construction from 
Norfolk, Nebraska, to be completed by August, 
will connect with the Union Pacific, and will 
bring to Yankton wliat it stands greatly in need 
of— a bridge over the Missouri. These enter- 
prises promise rapid development to the city, 
and their assurance has stimulated local improve- 
ments in an astonishing degree. In these wonder- 
ful Western towns it only requires the trust- 
worthy pledge of railroad facilities to bring 
capital and energy together with results that 
spring up almost before your very eyes. Much 
of the great work of development is done with 
Eastern money. Agents representing New-York, 
Boston and Philadelphia capitalists are constantly 
travelling over the country looking into this or 
that proposed investment, and often, if not usually, 
leaving much money behind them when they go 
away. This, it is perhaps needful to say, is 
the ‘only safe way of investing. The people of 
these new cities are morally a most superior 
class, but there are enough rogues among them to 
do them and the East too a vast amount of 
harm. I am told by trustworthy men that fully 
a third of the capital in actual use comes from 
the three towns of New-York, Boston and Phila- 
delphia, a fact which of itself shows how widely 
the East is interested in the progress of the new 
States. Large sums, however, have been lost 
through the manipulations of dishonest men,' and 
in making the caution emphatic that persons 
contemplating Western investments should come 
out and see for themselves where their money 
is going, I am but giving expression to the earnest 
wish of the reputable Western men. 


6 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


III. 


THE INDIAN QUESTION. 

LOOKING FOR THE OPENING OF THE SIOUX 
RESERVATION. 

A VISIT TO THE BBHLE AGENCY— ABE THE BEST 
INDIANS DEAD INDIANS?— THE DAKOTA 
VIEW OP ' IT. 

Chamberlain, South Dakota, April 18. 

The 500,000 people who live in South Dakota 
feel themselves much afflicted, and in all that 
pertains to their prosperity as a State much im- 
peded by the big Sioux Indian reservation, which 
extends from the west bank of the 
Missouri up and down directly through 
the heart of the new State, cutting it 
into an eastern and a western section; between 
which there neither is nor can be, under present 
conditions, any communication whatever. They 
complain that they are the victims of an unin- 
formed sentiment in the East, which assumes 
that the Indian is in need of sympathy and pro- 
tection against their malevolent desiens upon 
the Indian possessions. Eastern people, they say, 
having no barbarous nations about them to block 
their way toward whatever is desirable in civil- 
ized life, lose sight of the real facts composing 
the Indian question, and incline to think the 
savages a hard-used race, who are being rapidly 
robbed and exterminated. They claim that Indian 
legislation has hitherto been determined by men 
thus minded, with results ruinous to the Indians 
socially and morally, and ridiculously expensive 
to the taxpayers. 

Dakota’s Indian population is much larger than 
that of any other State or Territory, except that 
inhabited by the Five Nations, and practically 
the whole of it is in South Dakota. Here, upon 
a domain of the richest and most productive 
land on earth. 24.000.000 acres in area, a territory 
nearly as great as the State of New-York, quite as 
great as Indiana, and five times greater than 
Massachusetts, lives a body of 23,000 Indians 
who, with immeasurable resources at their com- 
mand, lead an utterly idle and shiftless life, and 
cost the Government $1,750,000 a year for their 
food and clothing. One-half of the Sioux are in 
a certain degree civilized, but as many as 1 2,000 
of them live far within their reservation, where 
they lead as wild a life as ever, and few of them 
come personally to the agencies. Their animosity 
against the whites is held in check only because 
they have learned the lesson of an outbreak, and 
know a hostile attempt will end in their punish- 
ment. But they are bitter and savage, and are 
a source of constant vexation to the agents, for 
their influence over the more enlightened Indians 
continues to be strong, and is always exerted 
against everything that tends to improve their 
race and bring it out of its low and worthless 
condition. 

Although you hear from Western people the 
most hopeful assurances that the Indian can be- 


come a civilized and useful citizen, entirely self- 
supporting, and capable in ail ways of exercising 
the rights and improving the opportunities of 
citizenship, with his savage nature wholly 
obliterated, and his manliness so brought out 
that he will hold the hie he came from in abhor- 
rence; yet they ask with a reasonableness that 
must be acknowledged, how you are going to do 
that when you take from him all motive for 
sell-exertion, when you make him a beggar, 
remove him from community with white pouple, 
shut him up in a reservation where he has no 
personal property rights, maintain his tribal rela- 
tions and the authority of the hereditary chiefs, 
and teach him to depend on the Great Father 
for all his supplies. This policy, once necessary 
and good, is now simply degrading to the Indian 
and costly to the white man. When it was 
instituted it was the only thing possible. Great 
blocks of country were assigned to small tribes, 
not only because they were otherwise useless, 
but because they afforded nunting-grounds. 
But now there is scarcely an eatable wild animal 
in the entire West larger than a jack-rabbit, and 
everything the Indian puts in his mouth or on 
his back is given to him outright by the Govern- 
ment. 

How many white people would work under 
these circumstances ? ask the Dakotans. Corral 
the people of a tenement-house district from New- 
tfork City cut here on these prairies, tell them 
the land is theirs in common, but not a foot of 
it within any one’s individual reach, build them 
houses to live in, give them weekly rations and 
clothes, and what would you expect of them ?. 
To what civilized heights would you think them 
likely to attain ? They might have been mechanics 
before you brought them hither, and without 
motive or use for their skill, how long would 
they retain it? If it be admitted that the 
Caucasian nature would deteriorate in so depress- 
ing an environment, you are asked how much 
more harmful it must be upon a race, most of 
whom still worship rocks, and whose system is 
established on the fundamental principle that all 
labor is degrading. 

The Indian cannot be blamed when ho sees 
the Government buying all he wants for him 
if he concludes that the Government owes him 
a living. He despises labor, he knows he doesn’t 
have to labor, and he believes it 
the duty of the whites to labor for him. Not 
long ago one of the Agency officials at Crow 
Creek came walking over the brow of a big 
bluff, and saw two ponies and two Indian women 
pulling and pushing a wagon up the hill, in which 
White Ghost, a great burly 200 pounds of Indian 
majesty, sat glum and grand. The March wind 
was blowing an icy gale down the bluffs, and the 
women were almost frozen stiff, but White Ghost, 
under his Government blanket, was warm enough. 
The white man told him to get out and help 
push the wagon, but “heap big Injun” didn’t so 
much as grunt. He simply drew his blanket 
closer around him, glanced contemptuously at the 
white man, and sat. At last, in pity for the 
women, the white man added his muscle to 
theirs and the ponies’ and helped to carry th& 
noble savage along. White Ghost is the prin- 
cipal chief at Crow Creek. He would sooner die 
than work. 

The Brule Indian agency is about five 
miles below Chamberlain, and you reach it in a 
row-boat under the patronage of an elderly 
gentleman, who has been on the Missouri for 
twenty years, and who knows Injun through and 
through. Like all older Westerners who remem- 
ber the experiences at New-Ulm, he has one set 
phrase in which he speaks of the redskin. He al- 
ways uses it as if it were a single word,’ 
—thus : “ Themdaminjuns I” And as he glides you 
along under the shadow of the steep bluffs that 
overlook the water everywhere, he entertains you 
with stories of the noble savage. 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


7 


“ I use ter think they wer’n’t no virtoo ’t all in 
themdaminj uns, an’ thet th’ on’y way ter make 
’em good was with a gun. But I’ve sorter changed 
my ’pinion. Onct in erwhile you kin ketch rale 
good tellers ’mongst ’em. I saved one of ’em trom 
drowndin’ a couple o’ weeks ergo an’ he was thet 
grateful he offered me my choice between ten 
head o’ ponies an’ his wife. He said I needn’t feel 
no constraint bout takin’ ’em, ler the Guv’meut 
’ud give him more ponies and he could make out 
ter lind another wile. They looks at ponies an’ 
women the same way, on’y the woman lasts longer 
an’ stan’s more abuse. 

“ Then they was another good Injun I knowed 
onct. lie was a p’leece up ter Crow Creek. The 
agents makes all tlier good Injuns p’leecemen an' 
dresses ’em up in blue coats, with big brass but- 
tons, like a regular p’leeceman. A wild Injun up 
the river had murdered another an’ gone oil in the 
prairies where the agent couldn’t ketch him. 
So he sent this good Injun fer him an’ tole him ter 
be sure an’ ketcn him. He was gone a couple o’ 
days an' nights an’ when he come back he had three 
dead Injuns layin’ acrost his pony. Hinting at one 
of ’em, he says to the agent: * You tell me get 
Lone Eagle.’ Then he poked at one of the dead 
with his gun, an’ gi'e a sorter cheerful grunt. 
The agent was all struck of a heap. ‘I didn’t 
say to kill nobody 1’ says he. 

“ ‘Ugh I’ says the Injun. ‘You say get Lone 
Eagle. I get him. Get three, no carry more.’ 

*• ‘Morel’ says the agent, turning pale. ‘What 
hev you bin doin’ anyhow ?’ 

“ The Injun— bis name was White Hawk— give 
a grunt, a lurch in his saddle, and fell dead acrost 
his pony. He was all shot ter pieces, but they 
went up the valley a stretch, ’bout a hundred mile 
er so, an’ they foun’ three more Injuns layin’ in 
a gulch. He was tole ter ketch Lone Eagle, an’ 
he done it. 

“ Thet war a downright good Injun— they’s no 
denyin’ it, but the most of ’em is onery devils. 
I was pullin’ a man down here onct, a Wyoming 
man from ther Big Horn Mountains. He were 
doin’ some guv-ment work. S’he, ‘You got a line 
lot er Injuns down this way.’ S’l, ‘Think so ?’ 
S’he, ‘Yes.’ S’l, ‘Where did you come acrost ’em?’ 
S’he, ‘Over yonder.’ S’l, thinkin’ he was one o’ 
them Injuns’ Bights folks from Bhiladelphy, s’l : 
‘Air you stuck on Injuns?’ S’he, ‘Not by a dern 
sight.’ S’I, ‘Well, wot makes you think they’re 
fine ?’ S’he, ‘Why. they’re the best I 
ever saw.’ S’he, ‘They’re angels Tong er the 
Injuns up our way.’ S’he, ‘We got jist the 
goldarnedest lot er Injuns in the Big Horn Moun- 
t’ns they is on earth.’ S‘he, ‘I tuck a contrac’ 
las’ fall from ther Gmv’ment, ter put up $80,000 
wuth of houses fer ’em, an’ you never see nicer 
little houses than the ones 1 put up fer them- 
daminjuns. They was warm an’ tight an’ roofed 
with shingles— better houses than half the white 
folks in the Territory’s got. Well, sir,’ s’he, ’wot 
d’you s’ pose them Injuns went an’ done? They 
tuck an' stuck their teepees ’longsider my houses, 
$80,000 wuth, min’ ye, an’ when winter sot in 
they tore down every single solitary house an’ 
burnt it up fer kindlin’ I They wasn’t one of ’em 
lef’ standin’ by Ne>v Y'ear’s.’ ” 

The ferryman dropped his oars, and laughed 
till he made the boat bob up and down like a 
float on a fishing line. “ Them Injuns’ Rights 
folks,” he continued, cutting off a lresh quid of 
tobacco and stewing it away in his cheek, “ down 
there to Philadelpliy, means all right, but they 
don’t know. They got ther noshun thet our 
people is alers robbin’ the pore Injun, an’ every 
time we suggests anything they sets up a howl, 
thinkin’, ’cause it comes from us, thet it must 
be bad. I jist wish they’d come out here an’ 
stay awhile. They’d change their idees ’bout how 
ter manage the Injun almighty quick. 1 wish 
they could see wot you’re goin’ ter see to-day. 
You’ve hit on one o’ ther show-days. I’d tell 
you erbout it, on’y 1 don’t wanter spile yer fun. 
When you come back you won’t blame us fer 
thinldn’ thet the best Injuns is the dead ones. 


I don’t objeck ter their havin’ their rights, but 
ez things is now, they’ve got a blame sight more 
rights ’n white people. They’s 1,200 of ’em at 
thet Agency. It costs $150,000 a year ter keep 
’em in food and clothes. The Guv’ment pays $4 75 
apiece fer blankets; an’ ez soon’s they gets ’em 
they comes right straight over ter Chamberlain 
an’ sells ’em for a dollar. They sells every- 
thing they gets— ponies, clothes, hats, an’ then 
lies ’bout it ter the agent an’ begs or steals 
more.” 

“ Are they dangerous?” I asked. “ That is, are 
they liaDle to break out?”' 

“ They’re afeard. They’s the wust cowards you 
eyer see. One night White Ghost come down ther 
river ter Chamberlain an’ went ter see a man wot 
was shippin’ cattle acrost the Reservation. The 
cattle had been eatin’ prairie grass along ther 
trail, an’ he wanted money fer it. He said ef 
he didn’t git ther money, he’d send his young men 
an’ take ther cattle. 

“ ‘ Hev you many wagons to your camp, Injun?’ 
says ihe rancher. 

•‘ * Heap wagon, heap pony, heap gun,' says 
White Ghost. 

“ ‘You’ll need ’em all, Injun,’ says the rancher. 
‘Ef you come around botherin’ my cattle, be sure 
ter fetch yer wagons erlong.’ 

“ ‘Mow •” said White Ghost, meanin’ ‘wot fer?’ 

“ ‘Ter cart off the bodies of yer young men, 
Injun.’ says the rancher. 

“ White Ghost tuck one o’ them quick looks, 
an’, s’he, ‘Who speaks ?’ 

“ ‘Mel’ says the rancher. ‘I’m a big warrior, 
Injun. My name’s Big Gun Thet Allers Kills, an’ 
I fit in the war of ther Rebellion. Hev you lieerd 
’bout thet war, Injun?’ 

“ White Ghost grunted, an’ the rancher says, 
s’he, ‘Well, I was there, Injun,’ s’he, ‘an’ I killed 
926 men in one day.’ 

“ White Ghost humped his shoulders, drorod his 
blanket all aroiiu' him, and says, s’he, ‘Ugh I’ 
6’he, an’ he made a break fer the door. They 
wasn’t no harm come to them cattle!” 

We were rowing gently down with the current 
upon the muddiest water I ever saw. On either 
side of the river,' stretching up and down for 
miles, rose a countless succession of mounds and 
bluffs— the Gumbo Hills of the Missouri. Sterile, 
tough and sticky, the soil of the hills is bereft 
of vegetation, though just behind them rolled as 
fair and rich a prairie land as anywhere exists. 
Once, centuries ago, as you easily* may see, the 
waters of this great river touched the highest 
summit of the furthest bluff, and reached at least 
twenty miles from peak to peak. Gradually, as 
they fell, they moulded these curiously shaped 
hills, cutting deep gullies and gulches between 
them, and forming a long island in the river now 
covered with a heavy growth of timber. 
Below this, the river has made long lines 
of ever-shifting sand-bars, and with scarcely 
enough water to accommodate our little skiff, we 
paddled our way through the bars to the reserva- 
tion landing. 

There the agency wagon was waiting for its 
mail-bags and supplies, and in it I made my 
further journey. It was “ killing day” upon the 
reservation, the day upon which cattle were 
slaughtered. r JTie Indians were already gathering 
from all over the prairies, coming fleetly in upon 
their ponies’ backs, or with their squaws and chil- 
dren in little Dearborn wagons. They were any- 
thing but pretty to look at. Some, pointed out as 
the wilder and more savage of the tribe, who blit 
rarely, and only upon such occasions as the pres- 
ent, came to the agency, were clad in their native 
costume, picturesque certainly, and even im- 
pressive, hut scarcely of a kind to excite agreeable 
sensations. Buckskin trousers, heavily trimmed 
with a leathern fringe, covered their legs, oddly 
painted here and there with grotesque representa- 
tions of horses, covotes, and other creatures. Over 
their heads, formed by a single quick motion into 
a hood, and then extending down about their 


8 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


shoulders and across their chests, they wore a 
blanket of white or colored flannel. Of these 
fellows nothing was visible excepting their ugly 
dark faces, always bearing a most sinister expres- 
sion, but animated only by their little black eyes 
that gleamed like snakes’. Some of them did 
without the hood, wearing nothing over their hung 
wiry hair, which fell from a parting in the middle 
straight down upon their shoulders. A headdress 
of gaudy feathers was often tied to the scalp-locks 
and stuck up therefrom in the familiar style. 
They all had moccasins upon their feet and walked 
without making the slightest noise, the circum- 
stance which, most of all, affected my nerves. 
The greater part, however, were clad in an ugly 
and ridiculous conglomeration of civilized and sav- 
age dress, which left them none of the native dig- 
nity that in a high degree characterized the ap- 
pearance of the wilder portion. 

As human curiosities the women were by far 
more interesting than the men. They wore more 
native toggery, beads, bracelets, necklabes, belts 
and such vanities. They sat around in small 
groups upon the ground, catching the pneumonia 
and chattering like monkeys, often with their 
papooses strung over their shoulders in the ap- 
proved fashion. Fully half the tribe were paint- 
ed with a light red dust. Being as ugly as possi- 
ble without the paint, it had no other effect than 
to make their ugliness a trifle more striking. 

Many of the Indians go armed. You could see 
their pistols or “ guns,” as everything that fires 
a bullet is called in the West, stick- 
ing out from under their blankets all around 
you. Hess than a dozen white people live at the 
agency, and removed from all others of thoir land, 
surrounded by tribes noted for their malicious 
tendencies, one would think their situation any- 
thing but enviable. There are no soldiers at the 
agency, only the principal himself, Major Tippetts, 
a physician, a store-keeper, a civil engineer and 
half a dozen assistants. Major Tippetts and his 
superior officer, Major Anderson, whose head- 
quarters are at Grow Greek, some miles above 
Chamberlain, are regarded as model Indian man- 
agers. '1'hey are both, after long experience 
among the Sioux, advocates of the new policy, 
which contemplates the establishment of each In- 
dian family upon a farm, to which the head of the 
family shall have a title in fee simple: the break- 
ing up of the tribal relations, the founding of 
public schools upon the reservations, so that 
children shall not be taken from their parents 
and the educational influence shall be felt bv both 
young and old: and, briefly, the substitution of 
modern civilized methods and manners for those 
wlrch are at best a compromise with barbarism. 
Maior Tippetts believes that the Indian will never 
make substantial progress until his interests are 
identified with tho-e of the whites, and his am- 
bitions are stimulated by the same chances of 
profit that render exertion worth while to other 
people. 

In a corral, not far from the agency, thirty 
head of Texan steers were waiting to be butchered, 
a process that fills the Indian soul with a huge 
barbaric joy. Ghiefs. bucks and squaws, maidens 
and chil'ien take their part in it and fill the air 
with howls of savage rapture, as each furious 
steer succumbs to the marksman’s bullet. The 
Indians began t<o gather around the corral full an 
hour before the shooting, coming across the prairies 
from all directions and in all sorts of conveyances. 
The old women and young girls sat around on the 
hill-tops, gabbling like a (lock of geese, while the 
bucks and the boys mounted the corral fence and 
prepared their knives and axes for the slaughter. 
Upon a little platform in the centre of the corrn I 
two - white men stood, armed with Winchester 
rifles, and as the cattle scampered around the 
inch sure, they selected their victims and fired. 
In most instances a single bullet sufficed, and the 
steer, uttering a wild snort or a long, low moan, 
rolled over dead. But some, tougher than the 
rest, or poorly hit, were simply rendered furious by 


the first shot, and bellowing madly, lowered their 
beaus and rushed at tne platform, at the 
fences or at any other object in their way, 
Then, from the squaws upon tne hills and from 
the bucks and boys arose a chorus ol savage 
yells. They pelted the wounded steer with stones 
and sticks, shrieked their favorite taunts at fum; 
told him he looked like u Fonca or au Omaha, 
and kept up a constant howl until a second, a 
third or a fourth bullet finished him. This specta- 
cle, 1 am told, is tame and spiritless compared 
with that produced on such occasions until about 
two years ago, and the success of Mayor Tippetts 
in preventing the cruelties practised formerly upon 
the steers is pointed to as proof of the tractabiiity 
of Indian nature. When the last steer had fallen 
and before many of them had actually died, tho 
Indians poured forth into the corral with knives, 
hatchets and axes, and keeping up their savage 
din, cut the bleeding cattle into pieces. Their 
first act was to hack out the tongue, which, drip- 
ping with blood, some began straightway to de- 
vour. Then they ripped off the skin, and getting 
finally to the heart and liver, without further 
ceremony— without an oven or a fire— they entered 
upon a feast which will not require a more 
extended description. The Sioux Indian may bo 
capable of attaining something like civilization, 
but I should prefer to try my hand on his friend 
and neighbor, the coyote. 

It is only fair to add that the people of Cham- 
berlain, who have watched the process of improve- 
ment as it has been practised on the Brule Sioux, 
are agreed that a much better condition of tilings 
prevails at the agency than existed even three 
years ago. The Indian police, organized by Major 
Tippetts, are said to be an efficient and trust- 
worthy body of men. The Major has created a 
court of criminal offences, composed of Big Main, 
John De Smit and Eagle Star, three of the most 
progressive men of the tribe, who dispense justice 
according to the Interior Department code with 
gratifying success. The court has plenty of work 
on its hands. Big Main is a handsome Indian and 
is regarded with much esteem bv the white people. 

Ail Dakota, North and South, is looking forward 
with the intensest interest to the opening of the 
reservation. The Dawes bill, intended to ac- 
complish this result, has been a law for two 
years, but it is founded on the theory that the 
Indians are not an element of the United States, 
but a foreign nation. Before it can become cf- 
fective, the consent of three-fourths 
of the male adult Indians must be 
obtained. The Government policy is a 
curious jumble; with one voice we command, with 
another we beg. We take their children from them 
against their will and consent to be educated in 
the East,. We establish laws for their control 
and guidance and compel them to adopt certain 
modes of life. But, with Supreme Court decisions 
on file holding that the Indian has no fee simple 
title to his land, we cannot or do not legislate 
upon his territory except by treaty. He is made 
at once a subject and a foreign power. 

This is what the Western people most complain 
about. It is not true that their feeling as a 
body of men is hostile to the Indian. On the 
contrary, they speak kindly of him, and I 
do them but meagre justice in saying that they 
would be as quick as any to resent and oppose 
measures looking to his injury. They are more 
anxious, as they have more reason to be anxious, 
than anybody else, for his improvement and for 
the removal of those conditions which keep him a 
worthless vagabond or a savage brute and leave 
him a stumbling block in their way. They want 
to lift him up, and they ask only that their plan 
be tried. Seeing that the oiler plan, pursued 
for forty years, still admits of such practices as 
1 witnessed in that corral, and that other practices 
far more revolting and offensive, such, for instance, 
as the Sun dance, are prevented only by the ex- 
ercise of force, it may be wise at least to listen 
with deference and respect to what the Westerners 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


0 


fiay. They say the Indian youth who come back 
Irom Hampton and Carlisle, if permitted to get 
away from the personal control of the agents, 
speedily relapse into barbarism. They say the 
Indian can only be induced to prefer what is 
refining and improving to what is gross and de- 
grading when he perceives that the better course 
is to his practical advantage. They say he must 
bo taught to value the dollar lor what it will 
procure and then he will work to get it. They 
say he must be divorced from his chief and made 
amenable to the general laws of the realm, lie 
must understand that heredity is of no political 
account in America and that he is as good in law 
as the next man. He must get into the white 
man’s ways by daily contact with the white man, 
so that he can see for himself what the white 
man is working for. And above all, they say, the 
ruinous system of supporting him must be stopped. 
Let him have lands and tools. Let him be taught 
how to use them. Help him in every way, but 
make him earn his living. 

The Dawes bill is a long step toward this policy. 
The Westerners have made great progress in im. 
pressing their views upon Washington, and they 
are lull of hope that when the Last understands 
them, these views will prevail. Under the Dawes 
bill, so soon as the Indians consent, 11,0U0, 000 
acres of the reservation are to be opened for settle- 
ment, lor which the Indians are to be paid $10,. 
5Uu,o00. Then they are to be invited to take 
iand in severalty, and to such as -will do this the 
Government will set apart 320 acres, giving them 
also a complete farming outfit, $50 in money, a 
team of horses and a supply of seed. Tlus is by 
no means all the Western people ask. They want 
the land-in-severalty plan made compulsory. They 
want, a compulsory public school system among 
the Indians, which, they say, would be easily 
established and popular. They want the Govern- 
ment, to stop treating with the Indian as if he were 
a civilized equal. If we concede him to be 
socially and morally capable of taking care of 
himself, they say, why support him? Why con- 
trol him? If he is not so capable, why submit 
our plans for his improvement to his unen- 
ghtened judgment? He won’t approve them — 
of course not, for he doesn’t comprehend them. 
If he did, he wouldn’t be in need of them. But we 
know they are for his advantage, and that is 
enough. He will find it out when, through their 
operation, he has ceased to be a savage and lias 
become a man and a citizen. 

One commission, it will be remembered, appointed 
to obtain the necessary consent of the Indians to 
the opening of the reservation, failed in its quest 
through the hostile influence of the old chiefs and 
their wilder followers. Another commission is 
soon to be appointed. Dakota is united in asking 
that Colonel John II. King, of the Black Hills, 
shall be one of its members. He is the champion 
of the Western idea and is at the same time in favor 
personally with the Indians. I asked him the other 
day if he really thought there was any chance of 
making a good citizen out of a Sioux. “ The In- 
dian,” he said, “ is smart. Ilis eyes and ears are 
better than ours, his mind as quick, his desires as 
keen. Teach him the operation of the law of cause 
and effect, of work and pay, and he will become one 
with us and one of us.” 

The Indian is smart— there can be no doubt of 
that. A party of big chiefs went to Washington 
last winter to visit the Great Father. One of 
them, since his return, has been dubbed “ Make-the- 
White-Chief-Wait.” How he acquired this title is 
a funny story. When they reached Washington, 
Mr. Vilas, the Secretary of the Interior, arranged 
to see them. Vilas is one of those nervous, 
bustling men who never have the tenth part of a 
second to spare. The Indians are, above all things, 
deliberative in ceremonial matters. When they 
were ushered into the Secretary’s room, he wheeled 
around in his chair and said he was the Great 
Father’s secretary and would hear what they wished 
to say. His brusque manner greatly offended the 
Sioux. There was a long pause, broken at last by 


the Secretary, who urged them to go ahead, speak 
their speech and get done. Finally one old fellow 
arose and delivered himself as follows : “ We are 
glad to see the Great Father’s chief. We are glad 
to hear his voice. We are his friends. We have 
come a long way in the Great Father’s carriage 
that says ‘chul chu!’ (imitating the puffs of a 
steam engine.), and that roils and bounces— sol 
(imitating the motion of the car). We are tired. 
We will see the white chief on Monday.” 

Mr. Vilas was much disgusted. He said he didn’t 
do business that way. If they wanted 
to talk they must do it now. Another 
long pause, and then a second chief arose. 

“ We are glad to see the Great Father’s chief,” 
said he. “ We are glad to hear his voice. We 
are his friends. We have come a long way in the 
Great Father’s carriage that says ‘chu! chu!’ and 
that rolls and bounces— so ! We are tired. We 
will see the white chief on Monday.” 

Again the Secretary remonstrated. He said he 
was a busy man. He could not see them again. 
They must talk now or not at all. A third pause, 
more prolonged than ever. Then the third chief 
slowly got up and said : n We are glad to see the 
Great Father’s chief. We are glad to hear his 
voice. We are his friends. We have come a long 
way in the Great Father’s carriage that says ‘chu I 
chu!’ and that rolls and bounces— so! We are 
tired. We wii] see the white chief on Monday.” 

Poor Mr. Vilas was becoming as tired as the 
weary Injun. But he tried it once more, this time 
appealingly. The fourth chief, alter waiting fully 
five minutes in silence, responded : “ We are glad 

to see the Great Father’s chief. We are glad to 
hear his voice. We are his friends. We have 
come a long way in the Great Father’s carriage 
that says ‘chu! chul’ and that rolls and bounces 
—so ! We are tired. We will see the white chief 
on Monday.” 

Mr. Vilas gave it up. He meekly replied he 
guessed Monday would suit him as well as any 
other day. L. E. Q. 


rv. 


THE NEW CAPITAL. 


PIERRE AND HURON LEADING RIVALS FOR 
THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT. 


HOW A CHOICE MUST BE MADE— HURON AND 
THE JIM BIVEB V ALLEY TOWNS. 

Huron, South Dakota, April 1 9. 

It is said of an Eastern man who visited Iowa 
when it was in an early stage of the settling 
process and each town was making frantic efforts 
to attract immigrants, that he reported to his 
friends : “ Every city in Iowa is the finest city 

on earth. Every river is the noblest, widest, 
deepest, purest stream that ever flowed. Every 
farm produces more to the square inch than was 
ever brought out of the soil before, and as for the 
people, no such liars were ever born!” This 
story has here no other application than to 
emphasize the intense devotion of Western people 
to whatever is “ their’n.” “ My town,” is not 
only the very best town, away ahead of any 
rival, hut there couldn’t possibly be a better 
one. Whether perched on a Missouri River bluff, 
spread along the narrow and sluggish “ Jim,” 
or dropped right down on the flat prairie with 
never a pond or a hill within fifty miles, the 
site of “ my town” is always unequalled and 
possessed of unique advantages sure to make it 


10 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


soon the great metropolis of the Northwest. An 
amiable and enthusiastic friend who drove me 
around one of the prairie cities in the Jim Valley 
solemnly assured me that I’d never seen a more 
picturesque sight than that presented by a little 
*un m( mnds, perhaps as much as six feet 
high, that extended for half a mile back of the 
town. I ventured to suggest that there was a 
spot or two in the Adirondacks just a trifle more 
imposing, but he wouldn’t have it so at all. 
Nothing, he said, could be more magnificent than 
that six-foot mound. 

No wonder these plains, the “ Great American 
Desert” of school-boy geographies, and as barren 
as a moor only ten years ago, are to-day covered 
with rich populous cities. Everybody has his 
immortal soul invested at its full value in his 
own particular place, and things hum and boom 
because they’ve got to. The first railroad car 
passed between this city and Pierre, 125 miles 
west, on the Missouri River, nine years ago, and 
not a single white man lived along the entire 
route. The men who went over on it spent their 
time shooting antelope which covered the prairies. 
Droves of antelope two miles long passed within 
rifle shot Huron’s municipal seal shows a sur- 
veyor driving a stake in the ground with a lot 
of antelope standing off watching him. The 
ls historic and occurred in 1880, where 
4,500 people are living now. 

is a Jim River town. The people are 
unwilling to accord their river any distinction 
not enjoyed by themselves, and. therefore, 
christened James, it is always called Jim. It runs 
lor 1,200 miles, north and south, through Dakota, 
with barely enough fall to keep its waters in 
motion, Ike prairie land, for fifty miles on either 
side slopes gently toward it and forms the “ valley 
of the Jim,” a phrase significant of good crops, 
where rams are frequent, snows almost unknown, 
and the temperature in winter generally 10 de- 
grees higher than that of Chicago. In describing 
one of these Jim River towns, you describe all. 
they are the depots of shipment and supply for a 
great block of surrounding agricultural country, 
through which, stoneless and smooth, a plough 
can be driven a dozen miles -without breaking a 
furrow. The fact that South Dakota cannot be 
looked upon as exclusively a wheat-raising coun- 
try, but one more adapted to general farming, has 
become established, and the farmers, -with few ex- 
ceptions, aie growing more corn than wheat, much 
flax, small fruits in great abundance, and are 
raising sheep and cattle in immense herds. Those 
who engaged early in general agriculture have 
grown wealthy, and the old “ shacks.” houses 
thrown together of sods, logs or the roughest 
timber, are giving way to fine large modern 
houses, with barns to match. Only a few of the 
original sod “ shacks” remain, but one of them, a 
few miles from Huron, contains a new Si. 200 
piano and a buffet with cut glass decanters. There 
are but two rooms and but two occupants in the 
house— an old man and his daughter. He built 
the “ shack” himself, piling sod on sod. with holes 
cut through here and there for doors and windows. 
The roof is made of cottonwood timber and the 
floor of Mother Earth. The old man says it’s a 
good warm house and will last as long as he does. 

Huron is chasing the capital, and with true 
Western avidity. When the people of South Da- 
kota took a vote on the capital question in 1885 
Huron led all the towns, with a couple of thousand 
votes to spare. Pierre, Huron’s Missouri River 
neighbor, secured the second place .and Sioux Falls, 
Chamberlain and the other towns came straggling 
along far behind the leaders. This vote was taken 
under the Sioux Falls Constitution, and in the hope 
that General Harrison, then in the Senate, would 
be able to get South Dakota into the Union. This 
plan failing on account of the action of the Demo- 
cratic House. Huron lost her advantage, for under 
the Admission bill passed by the hist Congress and 
now the enabling law. the capital question must be 
submitted again to the people. They will vote on 
it when they elect State officers next October, the 


race being free for all and all being in it. It is in 
no sense a partisan question. It will be decided 
by those town affiliations, on the one hand, and jeal- 
ousies on the other which arc so striking a feature 
of settlements in the West. The lirst vote Is not 
the final one. it decides simply where the capital 
shall be set up temporarily. That grateful boon 
goes to whichever town sfiail lead in the ballot, 
and the first State Eegislature is required to pro- 
vide at the next general election for anotner tree- 
for-all light for the permanent capital, if any 
town shall be so happy as to secure a majority of 
ail the votes cast, it has the prize; but if not a 
third election must be called, and in it a choice 
must be made between the two towns that led on 
the last vote. 

There is much to be said for and against this 
method ol choosing, and much is said both ways. 
Hut it is probably as satisfactory a scheme as 
could be devised. It is conceded wherever I have 
been that the towns which led on the last ballot, 
Huron and Pierre— the one the present centre of 
population, tiie other geographically the 
centre of the State— will be very like- 
ly to lead again, though as to the 
order in which they will lead opinion is as shape- 
less as a crab. Huron knows for a certainty 
that she has Pierre on the hip, while Pierre is 
cocksure that the hearts of the people are fired 
with zeal in her cause. I have an opinion on 
the subject, but I shall wait until 1 am well 
out of Dakota before it escapes me. 

Each town has advantages peculiar to itself, 
and both are working ardently and well. Both 
are on the line of the Chicago and Northwestern 
Railway, and that powerful corporation is main- 
taining an attitude of dignified reserve. Pierre 
is its western terminus, and the point from 
which, when the Sioux Reservation is opened, it 
will proceed onward to the Black Hills. Huron 
is its Dakotan headquarters, where its trainmen 
live, and where it distributes $30,000 a month 
in wages. Each town has a handsome, well- 
placed site all ready for the capitol corner-stone, 
and nobody is permitted to visit either town 
without inspecting it. 

All down the Valley of the Jim that wonderful 
subterranean water-route which is so powerful 
at Yankton extends, and is available both as a 
source of mechanical power and domestic supply. 
A single well furnishes Huron with three times 
the flow she can make use of, and other wells 
afford for manufacturing houses from thirty-five 
to fifty horse-power. This is regarded by the 
people as a happy promise of the future, and they 
are offering large inducements to versons who 
will bring capital into the place for manufacturing 
purposes. They call particularlv for mills, pack- 
ing houses and canning factories. The grain is 
here, the pork is here, and so are the fruits and 
vegetables. Routes to the markets of the East 
and South are already excellent, and are multiply- 
ing rapidly. The St. Paul and Manitoba system 
is here now, and is rapidly pushing on to Denver. 
This system gives Huron an air-line to the lakes, 
from which vessels carry freight seven months 
in the year to Buffalo, and so soon as Mr. Hill’s 
quickly moving plans are accomplished, liis rail- 
road -will do the same work the year round. 
It is believed in the Northwest that the com- 
oletion of these lines will enable merchants in 
Washington, Montana and the Dakotas to pur- 
chase their goods as cheaply in Now-York as in 
Chicago. The company represents that it can 
carry wheat from Dakota to Buffalo for 15 cents 
a bushel. The Northern Pacific has completed 
its surveys for a. line from Morris, Minn., to 
Huron, which will furnish a competing outlet 
to Lake Superior. The Missouri Pacific line, 
heading now for Yankton, is quite certain to come 
onward into the State, and negotiations are now 
pending for a right/ of way into Huron. 

In their educational and religious equipments- 
all these Dakota towns have everythin cr that 
could in any reason be asked of them. Making 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


11 


money fast, the people spend liberally. Anxious 
for their future, they are wise. Huron has about 
$50,000 invested in school-houses, and seven 
church societies have buildings and well-organ- 
ized parishes. Four National banks do a prosper- 
ous business, and a second-class postoflice is 
maintained, to which a salary of 32,400 is 
attached. Few cities of 4,500 inhabitants in 
the East can boast of such an office, with a 
carrier system and half a dozen deliveries per 
day. Here, as everywhere else in Dakota, oppor- 
tunities abound. They require little capital, 
but much fortitude and energy, for their practical 
improvement. The State has passed its experi- 
mental stage. It is no longer the home of saloon- 
keepers and gamblers. Its people maintain law 
and order as well as ever the Puritans did. 
They want population. They welcome strangers. 
They ask no questions about your ancestry or your 
wealth, but if there is anv country in which idlers 
starve and blackguards come to grief more 
suddenly and neatly than in another, it is the 
land of the Dakotas. 

L. E. Q. 

V. 


PIERRE, OLD AND NEW. 

ITS LAWLESS PAST AND PROMISING FUTURE 


THE SHIPPING POINT FOR THE BLACK HILLS— 
RAILROADS AS COLONIZERS— AN EAGER 
CANVASS FOR THE CAPITAL. 

Pierre, South Dakota, April 24. 

It is a matter of surprise to visitors in this 
country that such small towns enjoy such re- 
markable railroad facilities. A place with three 
or four thousand inhabitants often has as many 
as six great railway systems and a dozen trains 
a day connecting it in the shortest possible time 
with the entire country. The fact is, Dakota 
has been made by the railroads. Minnesota, Iowa, 
Nebraska and other Western States have shown 
them that it pays to open way f or settlements, 
rather than to follow settlements. Three thousand 
miles of track had been laid in Dakota before the 
Territory contained a single town of more than 
800 people. In other parts of the West settlers 
came along in wagon trains with a few blankets, 
a few farming implements, a yoke of oxen, a little 
hard tack and a barrel of water as their only 
equipment. When they had turned the wilder- 
ness into wheat-fields, the railroads cautiously 
came along after them. Then it was seen that 
as fast as the tracks were laid cities arose to 
meet them and that no judicious railroad enter- 
prise could fail. 

This experience prompted new methods when 
eyes of settlers turned toward the rich black soil 
of Dakota. The railroads perceived that if they 
took time by the forelock they could not only 
get their rights of way for nothing, but they 
could direct immigration and grow rich as well 
by the sales of land along the lines of their roads 
as by ordinary traffic. They took the risk. 
It was not very great. They could build upon 
the level prairies for $3,000 a mile. They could 
also bond for $30,000, as some of them did, to 
the immediate good fortune of themselves, but. 


of course, to the final ruin of their roads and 
their investors. But such of them as pursued a 
legitimate business have already reaped a golden 
harvest, and are still leaping and will reap for 
years to come. Under the Lberal and wise policy 
of Congress they were allowed to make out their 
own routes and to take for nothing a strip of 
100 feet as far as they would build. They picked 
out prospective town sites, took up two or three 
square miles of land around under the pre-emp. 
tion law, at an expense of $1 25 per acre, laid it 
out in lots, put up a few houses, gave the place 
a name and waited for settleis. 

They did not need to wait long. A host of 
farmers were waiting for the chance that now 
arose. They were all ready to go wherever they 
could have a fair opportunity to market their 
produce. They chased the railroads and gave an. 
immediate value to these town sites. Village after 
village thus lifted itself upon the plains and the 
prairie grass made way for grain. Industrious 
people could not help but make money, and they 
were the only class who had any motive for com- 
irg. Their cattle ranged winter and summer upon 
the prairies, living on the richest hay that grows, 
cured as it fell upon the ground. They thrived 
and multiplied, while the settlers built their sod 
“ shacks’’ and barns, sowed their wheat, gathered 
it in and sent it off to market. These facts tell 
the story of Dakota’s development. They show 
how it is that a social condition has been ac- 
complished here easily and quickly which in other 
Western States was attained only after twenty 
and thirty years had been spent in the severest 
experiences with hardship and poverty. They 
show why Dakota, save in the Black Hiils district, 
has always been free from those deplorable evils 
that form so shocking a chapter in the liistory of 
early settlements elsewhere. 

The only town east of the mining lands which 
has ever known what it is to be dominated by 
gamblers and desperadoes is Pierre, now the scene 
of as much that is peaceful and refined as can be 
found anywhere in the Territory. But. before 
the railroads got into the Black Hills Pierre was 
the point from which they received all their 
supplies, and to which they shipped all their 
minerals. A wagon trail extended straight across 
the big Sioux Reservation, which separates all 
South Dakota east of the Missouri from the Hills. 
The eastern terminus of the trail was at Fort 
Pierre, a settlement on Indian land, and there 
by sufferance only, just across the river from 
Pierre. Though assuming a military name. Fort 
Pierre never was anything but a trading post, 
fortified in the early days by the traders them- 
selves. Pierre Choteau. the old French fur mer- 
chant of St. Louis, established it in 1820, and 
put men there to stay during the winter and take 
lurs from the Indians whenever they could be ob- 
tained. Then barges came up in the spring from 
St. Louis, loaded down with provisions and 
trinkets, which -were left as the capital for an- 
other winter’s bargaining. Choteau’s men were 
mostly French-Canadians. They were on good 
terms with the natives and made wives of the 
dusky maidens, whose half-breed progeny -form 
the iarger part of Fort Pierre’s present popula- 
tion. They are a curious lot of people, and they 
have a curious town. It contains a most in- 
congruous collection of houses, mud “ shacks.” log 
huts, peacocky Queen Anues, Indian tents and 
mere corrals with sod roofs. Its people have 
gradually become more Indian than French, though 
they resemble no creatures on earth except them- 
selves. They are neither barbarians nor are they 
civilized, neither savage nor tame, neither white 
nor red. Thev wear clothes the sight of which 
would make Chatham-st. sick with envy. They 
seem to have neither emotion nor ambition, but 
they can trade horses, shoot jack-rabbits, fish and 
hunt with the best Indian in the land. Few of 
them do. or at, least few will, speak English. You 
must talk in Sioux or mongrel French, if you ex- 
pect to draw them into conversation. They are 
beyond the reach of all legal processes, for the 


12 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


Territorial courts have no jurisdiction over them 
and the United States courts are too remote lor 
use. The Indians call the male portion of Fort 
Pierre’s population " squaw-men,” a term which 
possesses two significations. It applies t<- such 
Indians as have shown themselves cowards, and 
especially to such as cry for mercy when under- 
going the ordeal of the bun Dance. It applies also 
to ail white men who take Indian wives. It is 
not an uncommon sight within the Reservation to 
find a " sguav\ -man ' inhabiting a log-hut with 
his half breed children, while his Indian wife, 
true to her instincts, is occupying a teepee outside. 

Pierre, on the east bank of the river, is now 
a line, well-built town, lull of enterprise and 
activity, and waiting eagerly lor the 
opening of the reservation. Eight years 
ago, when the railroad came in, it 
comained one of the wildest populations in the 
West. People began to concentrate so soon as the 
railroad pointed toward the river, and in antici- 
pation of a ** boom” they filed their claims, started 
a score or two of saloons and gambling dens and 
waited for victims. Those were bad days in 
Pierre. Filled with robbers and cutthroats, specu- 
lators, ranchers and traders, without the sem- 
blance of government, each man for himself, and 
relying only on his gun for protection, human life 
was of small value and crime of all kinds ran ram- 
pant. buch of the people as were honest lelt very 
lonely. There were no houses in the place. A 
barge had come up the river with a little jag ol 
lumber, which had been eagerly seized upon, but 
was almost useless for want of tools with which to 
fasten it together. A couple of Chicago young men 
who learned of this situation conceived it an op- 
portunity to make money, and they spent their 
last penny in the purchase of a carload of stoves 
and hardware. When it reached Pierre they had 
nothing left to pay the freight bill with, but they 
6aw an amiable-looking old fellow on the street and 
they told him their story. He went with them to 
the depot, paid their bill of $250, and they estab- 
lished themselves in a shedded corral. Neither of 
them knew the first thing about the hardware 
business, and their invoices not having arrived, 
they could only guess at the proper prices. They 
made no mistake in guessing, however. One of 
their customers wanted a pick. They fished out 
a pick and told him the price was $4 75. 

“ Great Scott!” he exclaimed. “ Do you know 
what this pick cost you ?” 

“ Well, since you put the question,” they re- 
plied, “ we may as well own that we don’t.” 

“ It cost you about sixty cents,’’ he said. “ 1 
must have the pick, and, if $4 75 is your 
price,' I’ll have to pay it, but it seems to 
me that $1 25 would be more like the fair 
thing.” , Mill 

'they said they didn’t want to cheat him, and 
took his $1 25. Not all their customers, however, 
were as well posted in hardware prices as this one, 
and when their invoices arrived they found they 
had cleared something over 500 per cent; on then- 
investment. They decided that the hardware 
busi ness was a good one to remain in. 

The aristocracy of Pierre and its ruling element 
were all saloonkeepers. They and the desperadoes 
ran the town. Nobody ventured out of his 
“ shack” at night, unless he was a robber, and even 
then nobody supposed to have money was sate. 
Men were “ held up” in broad daylight. Murders 
were ordinary happenings. Bands of robDers 
prowled the streets after dark, hammereo 
down resisting doors, and if they thought, their 
victims lying, or even if their expectations v' 
plunder were not fully realized, they wouin 
shoot a man down where he stood with as little 
hesitancy as if he were a coyote. This sort or 
thing, of course, did not last long. Robbers 
were met by regulators, murders by lynckmgs. 
One festive desperado who had ridden horseback 
through the town shooting at random was ti naus- 
ea unlit. in a “ shack” and literally perforated 
with bullets. 

That Pierre is gone, almost forgotten, now. 


One of two “ old-timers” remain, minus an arm 
or a leg, or gullied through with a bullet, as 
a reminder of the glorious past. But the Pierre 
of to-day is not only a changed, but a new Pierre. 
It possesses a handsome jail, but the jail is a 
white elephant. There hadn’t been a soul in 
it for six months, until the other day, when the 
town went wild with delight on learning that 
a man had been caught drunk and disorderly, 
and was actually to be imprisoned in the jail 
for sixty davs. If it had been possible, under 
the law, to put him in lor lilo there is no doubt 
it would have been done. r Ihe police authorities 
have readied a point in their search for occup&nts 
for that jail where nobody who gets within 
their clutches need hope lor mercy, they built 
x poorhouse in Pierre three years ago, and it 
has bad just three inmates since it was opened, 
for whose benefit the sum of $150 has been 
charged against the county. These racts tell 
more eloquently than any language can of tne 
general condition ol the community. 

Pierre's situation is such as to make the Indian 
auestion oue of the gi-vmtcst moment in all her 
calculations. That part of the reservation which 
is to be orenea for settlement under the Dawes 
bill is directly across the river and Pierre is 
the nearest point through it to the Black Hills. 
To reach Deudwood from Pierre by rail now one 
must travel through eastern Dakota down Into 
Iowa and Nebraska, a distance ol 1,200 nines. 
One could as easily and more cheaply go to 
New-York. Acioss the reservation the distance 
is bun 100 miles. So soon as the way is clear, 
the Chicago and Northwestern wiH span the 
Missouri with a bridge. and push its Dakota 
ifao directly into the Hills. This means every- 
, I.. n ^ to Pierre, and not only to Pierre, 
but 2 to all Central Dakota. While there 
ate no public lands left, outside of the 
reservation m the southern division ol the State, 
there is any amount of land to be bought at 
from $5 to $t> an acre, and prices along the 
railroad between Huron and Pierre are even 
lower. This stretch of country is thinly settled. 
Ic is too near the forbidden track whence nothing 
of value is to be derived, to sell well. So soon 
as the Dawes bill has done its work an imme- 
diate impulse will be felt in all this territory. 

Pierre is making a fierce campaign for the 
capital In every letter her citizens send away 
is inclosed an elaborate description of her natural 
resources and of the reasons why all wise and 
intelligent people will surely vote for Pierre. 
She is 2 shown to have the finest site m Dakota 
for the capitol building. A chart in vivid white, 
red and green proves here to be the geographical 
centre of the State. Wherever you go, you see 
the lettered inspiration posted in flaring colors, 
“ Pierre for the capital.” Her citizens frankly 
acknowledge that they are going to have the 
capital if it costs them half the town. A large 
fund has been raised for campaign work. Messen- 
gers are being dispatched all through the State 
with Pierre literature, and the regular political 
canvass is being conducted in the regular political 
wav The other night I stopped for an hour 
or two at a little prairie village waiting for a 
train in wh’"’ 1 to complete my journey. A shabby, 
ten-by-twelve hotel offered the only chance of 
obtaining a supper, and being desperately hungry. 
I concluded to take it. The landlord looked 
me over carefully, and drawing me aside, said 
in a friendly way: “ Lookeryere; I’m in a tight 
fix to-night owin’ to hard luck in a game of 
poker. Jest len me ten dollars, woncher ?” 

I demurred, said I hadn’t it to spare, and 
looked annoyed. 

“ O, well, now,” said he? “ don’t git mad. 
’Tain’t wuth gittin’ mad over. .Tedgin’ from 
the size of yer bag, I thort you was one o’ them 
Pierre-fer-the-capital fellers, an’ I knowed they’d 
let. me have the tenner quick enough. But it’s 
all right. Supper, hey ? Certainly.” 

L. E. Q. 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


ia 


VI. 


AMONG THE FARMERS. 


WATEKTOWN, A CITY BEAUTIFUL, FOK 
SITUATION. 


YOUNG MEN GROWING UP TO WEALTH — THE 

CAPITAL QUESTION— SCHOOL LANDS— SOME- 
THING ON RUSTLERS AND BOOMS. 

Watertown, South Dakota, April 27. 

First and last, saving only for the little strip 
of country called the Black Hills, where Nature 
has been minded to stow away in the earth a 
good deal of everything she has, South Dakota 
is an agricultural region, and it is from this 
point of view that her wealth and resources must 
be regarded. It will interest many, I am sure, to 
learn the cold, hard facts about what has been 
done by the people who, coming here with 
practically nothing, have drawn right out of the 
earth in wheat and corn and Uax a substantial 
fortune. It is a widespread impression that for- 
eigners constitute the Larger part of Dakota’s 
population, and it is quite true that there are 
many citizens here of German and Scandinavian 
birth. They are good citizens, too, unsurpassed 
for their common-sense, industry and patriotism. 
Incidentally it may be mentioned that they all 
vote the .Republican ticket. But they are only 
a small minority of the people. By far the greater 
part came originally from States east of tue 
Alleghenies, and thousands from New-York and 
New-England. At least four-fifths of the men in 
Dakota are under forty years of age. Gray hairs 
are rarely to be seen. 

In a journey of about 1,500 miles through the 
Territory, I have found only ten men who came 
here, until within the last three years, when 
manufactories began to be established, possessed 
of more than $7,500, and nine-tenths of the 
present population brought with them less than 
#500. The farmers, especially, who settled 
down under the homestead laws, were deplorably 
poor when they took up their claims. Thousands 
of them are now, ten years later, lending money. 
It goes without saying that there have been 
countless failures. Anybody can faiL The 
practical question is : What can be done in the 
way of success, and what is required to do it? 

These Western States are divided into square 
miles. Each square mile is called a section. One- 
fourth of a section, or 160 acres, is a homestead. 
Every foot of available soil in South Dakota is 
owned by somebody now, and to get a farm you 
must buy it. It. can be had at from $5 to $50 
an acre, tho difference in price referring not to 
the character of the soil, but to its distance from 
towns and railroads. One is assured wherever 
one goes, and in all sincerity, no doubt, that the 
lands lying just there, fifty miles either way, are 
the best in the State, but the probable fact is 
that it is all equally good. The soil is black. 
Dig till you touch bottom and you turn nothing 
up but black vegetable mould, that can never 
wash down to the clay. Seen from a distance, 
newly broken, surrounded by the green prairies, 
it looks as if a heavy coating of black paint had 
been spread all over the ground. 

It requires from $500 to $1,500 to establish 
one’s self on a homestead. People have done 
it on $100, hut they were men of more than 


ordinary resolution. A house to live in must 
be built, and a barn for grain and cattle. A pair 
of horses and oxen, ploughs and other implements 
must be hud, and $5 on is as little as one can 
get along with, unless he has uncommon grit 
and plucK. From thoroughly wild lands scarcely 
anything can be realized the first year, but with 
the second season a start toward recovering 
the investment can easily be made. A farmer 
living a few miles from Watertown, who estab- 
lished himself on his homestead in 1879 with a 
cash capital of $70, produced 1,500 bushels of 
wheat the next season. His second crop was 
2,000 bushels, and in 1887 he gathered in 5,500 
bushels. He owns 1,280 acres to-day, bought 
and paid- tor. He owns sixteen horses, thirty 
cattle, twenty-four sheep, and he has a modest 
fortune of $15,000 earning him 10 per cent 
interest. This is an unusual record, or, more 
accurately speaking, it is the record of an un- 
usually prudent and thrifty man. He did not 
start out in a gabled mansion, but in a sod 
shack. He began with a yoke of oxen, and 
waited for his trotting horses until recently. 

Driving over the prairie yesterday I came across 
an old man sowing his wheat. It is no offence 
to introduce yourself out here— the people are 
sociable. I stopped him when he got to the 
end of his row, and asked him how long he’d 
been in Dakota. 

“ I ben in Dakoty,” he said, “ goin’ on eight 

year.” 

“ Where did you come from P” 

“ I were born in Vermont, but I kim here 
from Wisconsin.” 

“ How much land do you own ?” 

“ Jest one square mile.” 

“ How much did you own in Wisconsin ?” 

“ Two lots in a buryin’ patch.” 

“ How much wheat did you raise last year ?” 

“ Air you buyin’ wheat ?” 

“ No, but I’d like to know if you don’t mind 
telling.” 

“ ’Tain’t no secret. I raised a crap of 2,600 
bushpls.” 

“ What’ll you sell your farm for ?” 

“Air you buyin’ property ?” 

“ No’ but — ” 

“ O. I got my price. Anybody who pays me 
$15,000 down kin hev my farm.” 

“ How much money did you have when you 
came here ?” 

“ I hed ray things to set. np house-keepin’ with 
and $50 in money which T borried. I didn’t sell 
my lots in the burvin’-groun’.” 

These are not solitary cases. They are two of 
many. They do not occur so frequently as the 
instances of men who come and start in with 
a spread, securing more land than they can 
utilize, running in debt for their equipment,, and 
finally winding up in loss and disappointment. 
11111 , they do occur often enough to give the 
State a solid, 1 thrifty population, to fill it with 
nice, comfortable homes, and to make it the mine 
of golden chances. Even yet. as you drive into 
the interior, you can see men living in covered 
wagons upon their claims, too poor to build 
themselves a house, but with 75 or 100 
acres ploughed up and sown. They will have the 
house soon, and will add others to the long- list 
of stories proving that, Nature’s heart is generous? 
and to be reached npeds only the assurance of an 
honest, and industrious disposition. 

Among the larger Dakotan cities none has 
more to say for herself than Watertown, and 
none can say it, better. The site of the town 
is remarkable by comparison with other prairie 
sites. It has a lake, a really lovely sheet, of 
water, os free of vegetation as a bath-tub? with 
a pebbly and sandy shore. Such a. thing in this 
country is taken to mean that Providence 
has designs of strange and unusual benevo- 
lppeo toward the so favored community From 
their beloved Kampeska the people take their 
water supply and pump it Into a standing pipe. 


14 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


It is good water, and any one who is going to 
Watertown should oe quick to say so. it is a 
hospitable town and always glad to see strangers, 
tout one cannot be too careiul or too prompt 
in remarking on the sweetness or the clearness 
of the water. 

Watertown has hills, too, actual hills tnat 
rise above the prairies, and upon one of these 
the Capitol building is to rest— if. The hill is 
about one-eighth of a mile from the town, to- 
ward. which it slopes in a very pretty way, and 
at its summit one can look across as tar a stretch 
of country as one would wish to see. Eake Peli- 
can, long and narrow, is on one side. Lake 
Kampeska, broad and wide and agate bound, is 
on the other. Behind it is the prairie, limited 
only by human sight, tinted with green and gold 
und traversed by the shadows of the clouds. Be- 
fore it is the city, than which there are hosts of 
worse-looking places. It is a choice site for 
any public building. Watertown has not been 
considered a factor in the capital fight until re- 
cently, but she has been stirred up by other 
smaller towns around here, which have urged 
her into the field, and now, an announced candi- 
date, she is running for votes To an outsider 
the capital question is delightfully amusing. Each 
town can figure out its majority before your eyes 
and show where every vote is coming from. It 
is all perfectly clear and indisputable until some- 
body from another town comes along. Then the 
figures whirl and the facts flutter, until you feel 
as if a sand blizzard had hold upon you and was 
turning you around, upside down, inside out, and 
filling nose, eyes, ears and mouth. 

In its animating spirit, Watertown wants noth, 
ing. It has all the push and energy that 5,000 
people could conveniently use. It is wealthy, 
as wealth goes here. Its banks in 1888 wrote 
$5,144,000 of exchange and carried from seven 
to ten millions of deposits. Its flour mill rolled 
out 90,000 barrels of flour from the grain picked 
up all around the city. Its farmers marketed 
600,000 bushels of wheat and 155,000 bushels of 
flax, 60,000 bushels of potatoes and 73,000 pounds 
of wool. In its ten manufactories a round million 
of money is invested, and from five railroad sys- 
tems its receiving and distributing service is 
acquired. 

Now, when you group facts a little, when you 
consjder that there are here six banking institu- 
tions, one with an office building that cost 
$ 80 , 000 ; three public school houses, and a fourth 
soon to be built at a cost of S40.000; a motor 
street railway; a handsome and trim little opera 
house; a Grand Army assembly hall; three good 
hotels, loan, trust and insurance companies, brick- 
yards, paint factories, flour mills, foundries, tan- 
neries, carriage and plough factories, and around 
it a county with 85,000 acres of land under culti- 
vation and yielding over 1,600,000 bushels of 
grain a year, where, in 1875, were but three white 
inhabitants, and in 1887 only one frame house— 
when one takes a birdseye view of these, facts 
he appreciates the stuff these Western folks are 
made of. He appreciates, too, the wisdom of 
those much abused Congresses that devised the 
homestead laws aDd that made it to the practical 
advantage of capital to come out upon these 
rrairie wastes and risk money in railroads. 
It, is, I know, the popular thing 
with a certain class of politicians nowadays to 
abuse the railroads, to call their grants “ land- 
grabs,” and to beat a tattoo upon the heads of 
the legislators who conceived the policy which has 
turned a desolate, barren, trackless wilderness into 
rich and populous States. The people who con- 
tribute t'o that, chorus of silly chatter have never 
been West. They don’t know what they are talk- 
ing about. If they would come out here they 
would soon feel heartily ashamed of themselves. 
That, individual railroad rings have done certain 
tricky or dishonest acts, that Congressional flesh 
has sometimes proved weak, may all be true, but 
what of it ? The Government policy of free homes 


to industrious people and of free lands to railroad 
capital, read in its practical results, is proved to 
uc one ol tne wisest, uoblest conceptions ol states- 
munsnip ever reoorueu on a statute-book. If the 
good it has done lu turning poverty into com- 
parative wealtn and misery into happiness, m con- 
tributing to the food of tne country, in relieving 
congested populations, and tiiereby diminisiiing 
crime, and in tflousands of collateral ways, could 
be put into figures and measures, the tool wflo is 
so lug a fool as to find lauit with it would be a 
curiosity. 

Townships in this country are blocks of land six 
miles square, and divided into sections or square 
miles, lwo sections in each township, Nos. 16 
and 3 6, are held under acts of Congress until the 
territories become States. Nobody is permitted to 
touch them, 'lfiey are called school sections, and 
when the Dakotas, Montana and Washington be- 
come States these school sections, millions of 
acres, worth millions of dollars, will be turned over 
by the National Government to that of the States, 
to be employed :n the creation and maintenance of 
a public school fund, many of tuese sections 
would sell to-day for $25,000. Some are in Che 
heart of growing ciues. These States will from 
the very start possess a school fund that will re- 
lieve the people ol all educational taxation. They 
are not waiting to avail themselves ol tins fund, 
however. They have already provided themselves 
with aa excellent graded system, and 1 mightily 
wish the people of the East could have the oppor- 
tunity to mane an analysis of the expenditures and 
tax-rates out here, it would open their eyes. 
TUese folk think nothing of spenumg $4o,ooo or 
$50,900 for school or other public buildings. And 
yet they regard a tax of one dollar on the hundred, 
the valuation being a third of the real valuation, 
as exceedingly high. Watertown’s assessed 
value is $1,000,000. Its tax-rate is 
16 1-2 mills on the dollar. The meaning 
of this is simply that the rascals are not in politics 
here. Public contracts are honest contracts. 
They are not let to enable rings to cheat the 
people. Tho engineers do not “ stand in” with 
the contractors and the contractors with the poli- 
ticians. The people are not yet civilized to the 
point at which such methods are regarded with 
indifference. 

iu the Dakotan vocabulary there are two words, 
“ rustler” and “ boom,” which occur with marked 
frequency in every conversation. The rustler is 
the direct product of the blizzard. He moves with 
a quick, resistless force. He does not rest for 
sleep or food. He knows no weariness of the 
flesh. He has no doubts or fears. He believes 
and he is an inspirer of faith. He will build a hotel 
of 300 rooms on a stxeet^motor railway on the 
blank prairie and wait for a town to grow up 
arcund it. The town always comes, if he be a 
genuine rustler. 

You can't tell liim by his looks, nor by the cut 
of his clothes. His grammar is often addled, and 
he makes a bib of his napkin at table. But when 
he turns himself loose upon a project with money 
in it the project projects. It looms. It yawns. 
He keeps it ever in the way of your eyes, and be- 
fore you know it you begin to see rainbows 
around it. 

He cares nothing for money after it is made. 
Ask, and it is given you. Tell him a tale of 
woe. and out comes his purse. He would moulder 
in a week behind a desk or in a counting-room. 
He is always on the lope. To-day he is getting 
options on corner lots in Pierre. To-morrow he 
is building mills at Yankton. Then he is off to 
St. Paul bulldozing “ Jim” Hill for more railroads, 
or off to New-York placing the stock of a new 
loan and trust company. He is interested in 
everything, lie lets no enterprise escape him. 
They’ll all pay, he says, or all “ bust.” There is 
no middle liDe out here. 

I rather hesitate to define a boom, but, as nearly 
as I can perceive, if is a sudden rise in values 
which, if occurring in my town, denotes sub- 
stantial and permanent progress, but in 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


15 


your town only an unhealthy and dis- 
honest inflation. It is a curious fact 
that rustlers and booms rarely,' if ever, have 
any connection with each other. Rustlers don’t 
usually like booms— they are an untrustworthy 
quantity. In their anxiety to shove ahead, to 
keep things going, to obtain population and to 
bring in money, and, more than all. to prevent 
other towns from getting ahead of them, all the 
Dakota cities are more or less given to booms. 
They arise upon all sorts of excuses. A railroad 
company decides t«> do some building. The towns 
affected at once begin to boom. The capital ques- 
tion is being used as the handle for a dozen con- 
flicting booms. The only danger that threatens 
Dakota, the only obstacle that stands in her way, 
are these occasional eruptions of speculative fever. 
They hurt all Western investments with Eastern 
men. They ought to be, and I am glad to say 
they are, frowned upon by all sensible and honest 
Dakotans. L. E. Q. 


VII. 


ABERDEEN. 


SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL FEATURES OF A 
PROSPEROUS YOUNG CITY. 


AX IMPORTANT RAILROAD CENTRE— AMBITIOUS 
TO BE THE CAPITAL— INFLUX OF IM- 
MIGRANTS FROM RUSSIA. 

Aberdeen, South Dakota, May 1. 

Except upon the newest maps of Dakota, Aber- 
deen does not appear, and yet It is the second 
city in size, in population and in commercial 
strength. It is only six years old, and it has 
6.000 inhabitants. It is near the border line be- 
tween the two Dakotas. It is filled with young 
men and young women, practically all from the 
East, and a busier, brighter, quicker, sharper lot 
of people never were drawn together. There is 
something intensely fascinating about these com- 
munities. where absolute democracy prevails, where 
independence is exalted, and where the cast-iron 
rules of conventional society are not so much as 
thought about. Some amiable people the other 
evening were good enough to ask me to a recep- 
tion ; and the prettiest and most charming woman 
I met. the wife of a rich young merchant, re- 
marked that she came from Boston. 

“ And did your husband come from Boston ?” 
I asked. 

“ Oh, no,” she said, “ I met him here. He came 
here a year or so after he was graduated from 
Amherst, and boarded for a while in the family 
where 1 worked l” 

She was a dainty little creature. Her voice 
was sweet, and her manner exceedingly refined. 
I glanced at her gloved hand. It was small and 
slender. At the tips of her little feet. They were 
neatly dressed. 1 looked at her costume, and 
while my knowledge of feminine apparel does not 
entitle me to speak authoritatively as to the 
degree of perfection in this case, yet there was 
certainly nothing conspicuous about it. and she 
looked trim and. in brief, .lust as she ought to 
have looked Later in the evening I asked some 
questions about her. and ascertained that she came 
West as a general domestic in the family of a 
New-Englander. Now she was the mistress of one 
of the finest houses in town and an ornament of 
society. The richest man in Aberdeen, a banker, 


not yet thirty-five years old. whose hand directs 
every public enterprise, and whose purse is open 
at every worthy solicitation, came into Dakota 
first as a fireman on a locomotive. He says " was” 
for “ were” and " them” for “ those.” but when 
he is securing employment lor the young college 
graduates who come to him a hundred a year 
they don’t haggle because he isn’t the scholar 
they are. His word is law in Aberdeen, and his 
edicts would be thought of no better if they were 
written in Latin. 

lo understand society in these new cities, it 
must be remembered that they have been built by 
every type of energetic man. They contain plenty 
of people who are used to all the refinements of 
Eastern life, and whose homes here are maintained 
in as gentle a style as prevailed in the homes they 
came from. They contain others, just a a rich and 
just as poor and ,iust as necessary to the develop- 
ment of the community and just as important in 
the community’s eyes as these, who eat beans 
with a knife and drink soup from all over the 
spoon with a palpable gurgle. But neither the 
people who have been gently bred, nor those who 
came along a la Topsy, can do without the other, 
and public opinion would not tolerate an attempt 
at social discriminations. The result of the com- 
mingling of all classes is to bring out the manhood 
and womanhood of all, to teach those who have 
lacked social advantages, and to create a society 
devoid of all artificial manners, sincere, generous, 
hearty. The men do not wear dress suits at 
dinner or at evening assemblies, and the women 
rarely appear in low-neck costumes. They all put 
on the best they have, and that is sufficient. It 
would be possible, undoubtedly, to describe society 
here as crude, but that, if true, w ould be important 
only to shallow people, who are themselves not in 
the least important to these Westerners. The 
great charm of life here is that every man stands 
on his own individual merits. If he has no 
merits, he has no standing. 

When you look at the topography of Aberdeen 
and the country around it, you wonder why its 
first settlers started it where they did. rather than 
anywhere else. It sits down on the prairie, with 
never a tree, shrub or brook at hand, 
und with nothing to commend the ground 
it occupies as a town site over the ground for ten 
miles in any and all directions. How it has suc- 
ceeded in obtaining its rank as the second city in 
Dakota is explained in its railroad relations. It 
has grabbed for railroads every time it saw the 
chance of getting one. It has thought no sacri- 
fice too great if only a new railroad was the com- 
pensation. This sagacious policy has given it 
an immense tributary country, with thirteen rail- 
road lines distributing its produce, manufactures 
and other goods. Its merchants sell, not exclu- 
sively, but largely to 100,0”0 people, scattered 
along 1,100 miles of railroad running into Aber- 
deen as the nearest or best point of supply. This 
situation is an advantage as well to the farmers 
around Aberdeen as to the merchants in it. With 
such unusual opportunities of putting their prod- 
uce upon the market, they have cultivated their 
land thoroughly. Every available acre in Brown 
County is growing grain or feeding stock, and in 
188ft, the 9000 farmers of Brown County grew 
5,000.000 bushels of wheat, a trifle more than one 
per cent of the whs.it crop of the whole world. Be- 
ing thus profitably engaged in actual business, Aber- 
deen has taken no part whatever in the “boom” 
speculations, a circumstance which cannot be esti- 
mated too much to its credit. It possesses nine flnan- 
eial institutions— banks, loan and mortgage com- 
panies— -with a capital of 82,350,000. They do an 
enormous business in small loans of about $2 per 
acre upon improved and cultivated farms. I sup- 
pose, from what I can see and^ hear, that no class of 
investment, if wisely made, is so richly profitable 
as these Western farm mortgages, and for the very 
good reason that men can come out here practi- 
cally penniless and pay for their farms in a sin- 
gle crop of w'heat. A farmer near Aberdeen told 
me that upon 1,600 bushels of wheat, sold at 82 


16 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


cents, his net profit was $1,044 60. He seemed to 
feel pretty well satisfied with himself. 

In considering the character ol a community it 
i« of importance to know who owns its rea. estate 
and what the history of property values has been. 
Out on the Missouri there is a little town with 
three or I'ur houses, an empty and idle mill, a 
saloon and a church, where claims that could be 
bought six weeks ago for $500 are to-day actually 
selling for $5,000. There is absolutely nothing 
to show for this ridiculous inflation. A local 
boomer got hold of the farmers in the adjacent 
country and made them contribute what amounted 
to 10,000 days’ work grading a railroad. The 
railroad was prepared to be ironed, the company 
was organized and he was sent East to get hold of 
capital. An admiring friend of his told me the 
story. “ Bill, ye know,” said he, “ didn’t hev 
no money— not a blame cent. We 
hed ter run our ban’s right down in our clo’es 
and raise the stuff ter take him on to New- York. 
We held a meetin’ of the corpyrasliun an’ Bill 
made us a daisy speech, sayin’ he knewed jest 
whar’ he cud git investors, and insider four 
weeks they wouldn’t be no acre property for 
sale aroun’ town. But we must give him ther 
money ter work on. Well, we done it. An’ 
then, Bill says, s’he, ‘ Boys,’ s’he, ‘ I can’t go 
East ’thout a new suit er clo’es. These is all 
I got, an’ they ain’t calkerlated ter impress ther 
capitalists,’ s’he. So we passed a reserlooshun 
givin’ liim $30 fer a noo suiter clo’es an’ $5 
fer a noo pair er boots, an’ off he went. Well, 
sir, by guru, he kem back in Rss’n two weeks, 
towin’ a party o’ capitalists. We was all ready 
fer ’em, buyin’ town lots off’n ourselves faster’n 
the deeds could be wrote, layin’ the tracks on 
the railroad and gradin’ the city streets, an’ we 
sold ’em the whole place before they went away. 
The last I seen of ’em they was figgerin’ on the 
cost of waterworks and per parin’ ther docky- 
ments to go inter the capital fight. They won’t 
sell that property now fer no money, an’ Bill’s 
goin’ aroun’ with a wad o’ greenbacks big enough 
ter buy him all the clo’es he’d want ter stock 
a store with.” 

It is this sort of thing that most hurts Dakota, 
and it will be sure to receive attention from her 
lawmakere so soon as the State Government has 
been organized. As things are now, the people 
have no protection against these boomers. There 
are no banking laws to protect depositors, and 
no adequate insurance laws to protect policy- 
holders. The remedy for this condition of affairs 
will be quickly applied next winter, and the 
influence of Aberdeen, always a centre of con- 
servative business methods, will be felt heavily 
on the side of wise and honest laws. Real estate 
is low in Aberdeen, and largely held by its own 
people. Business houses can be obtained at rentals 
which invite business establishments, and while 
no vacant, property exists, it can be and constantly 
is being built on sound conditions and at reason- 
able terms. 

In coming to Aberdeen I supposed I was at 
last going to meet an unselfish community who 
could tell me candidly where the capital of South 
Dakota would be placed. All through the State 
I had been assured that Aberdeen was not in 
the race, that her geographical situation at the 
extreme north of the lower Dakota had led her 
to decide against any effort to get the prize. 
But this proves to be false information. Aberdeen 
is very much in the race. She says she has 
12,000 votes at her command, and they are good 
for either one capital or two or more railroads, she 
doesn’t particularly care which. I grieve to say 
that the bartering between towns and individuals 
upon this capital question is fast assuming colossal 
proportions. Sometimes you can’t distinguish 
it from downright bribery. Each of the candi- 
date cities is going to get something out of the 
contest, if not the capital, then a railroad or a 
State institution or an important office, or some- 
thing. It is a shame to find decent people 


countenancing this sort of business. They don’t 
seem to understand that its influence upon their 
political morals is surely and actively corrupting. 
The other day in one of the towns 1 visited I 
was invited to take a walk to the spot where, 
i was assured, the capitol building was bound 
to go. The individual who escorted me descauted 
with great fervor and pride on the beauty ol the 
proposed site. When we reached it, he pointed 
out its many attractions. “Seel” he said, with 
a series oi enthusiastic gesticulations, “ ain’t 
that a splendid hi il r'” 

I said it looked like a good, substantial 
hill. 

"Look at the river I” he cried. “Ain’t it a 
beautiful stream ?” 

it was a nice river. 

“Look at those bluffs I” he continued. “Did 
you ever in ail your life see such bluffs as them, 
such big, round, sightly bluffs ?” 

Nothing, in truth, ailed the bluffs. 

" Well, now,” said he, “ what do you think, on 
the whole, of that site!”’ 

I said 1 thought it a first-rate site. 

“ Me an’ some of my friends,” he went onj 
in a lower tone, “ owns all this here land, ’bout 
a thousand acres.” 

I remarked that that was very nice for him and 
his friends. 

“ We’re platting it now,” he said ; “ laying it out 
in town lots. 1 s’pose it’ll take half of ’em to get 
the capital. We’ll put a lot here and another one 
there, and, you know, wherever it’H do the most 
good. It— er— it is a good site, now, ain’t it?” 

“ Ves, the site’s all right,” I said 

“ It may take 500 or 600 acres to do the busi- 
ness, but, then, I guess we’ll come in pretty well 
on what’s left. I’m real glad you like the site.” 

There was a moment’s pause, and then he put his 
hands on his hips, grinned amiably, and remarked: 

“ There’s no reason in the world why you shouldn’t 
pave that there corner lot, if you’d like itl” 

Immigrants are pushing rapidly into the coun- 
try west of Aberdeen. Within eighteen months 
nearly e,000 Russians have arrived, planted a city 
and tilled up 2,000 homesteads. They call their 
town Eureka. It is as lively a spot as I have seen 
in Dakota. An immigrant train with sixty new 
families arrived yesterday. When it approached 
Eureka the peasants began to sing hymns, to 
cheer, to hug and kiss each other, and some of 
them, quite overcome with their emotions, joyful 
and otherwise, sobbed aloud. They were a fine- 
looking body of hardy men and women, and are 
welcomed by the people generally. The banks 
out here trust them implicitly, and supply them 
with all the money they want.. They work with an 
industry hardly credible, and get out of debt with- 
out fail after their second or third season. All 
the Russians around Eureka were at the depot yes- 
terday awaiting the newcomers. Hundreds of 
horses and carriages blocked the streets, and a 
crowd had gathered that completely filled the open 
space around the station. They went wild with 
delight. They shouted and sang as the train was 
discharged of its human cargo, and, rushing up to 
their friends gave them the Russian salute. Each 
nut an arm about the other’s neck while they 
smacked their ups together <n two resounding 
kisses. This was done quite indiscriminately, men 
kissing men as well as women. In the afternoon 
they disappeared into the country, where, in tho 
majority of cases, their homesteads have already 
been selected for them. 

Their houses are all built in the old-country 
style. They make big bricks, a foot square, of 
the white clay to be found in vast deposits among 
the Coteau Hills, and dry them in the sun. Then 
they build of these a low, long house, one story 
in height, and containing four or five rooms 
formed by partitions placed at proper distances 
through the house. The walls are about 1 8 inches 
thick, with apertures here and there for windows. 
At one end of the building, which is often 200 
feet long, is the stable ; at the other, the dairy and 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


17 


granary. The roof is built of planks or rough 
timber, thickly sodded with earth, in which grass 
and flowers grow profusely in the summer time. 
They make heaters of this same white clay in the 
walls of the house, burning hay for fuel. So 
tightly are the heaters constructed that they can 
confine the hot air generated by only as much hay 
as can be held on a pitchfork, and make it last 
for a whole baiting, and heat the house all day. 
The houses are absolutely fireproof. They laugh 
at prairie fires. These Russians came here beg- 
gars. They are growing rich. Their homes are 
neat, clean, comfortable places, some of them full 
of costly furniture. They are sending over to the 
old country for their friends, who are arriving in 
droves every week. Five carloads have gone 
West since I reached Aberdeen. They are ac- 
counted by the people here a valuable and worthy 
class of citizens. L. E. Q. 


VHI. 


S TOBIES OF MB. GBEELEY. 


HIS WIDE INFLUENCE AMONG EARLY WEST- 
ERN SETTLERS. 

THE GREAT DAKOTA WATERSHED — MILBANK 
AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 

Milbank, South Dakota, May 3. 

In wandering about the Western country, one 
is quickly impressed with the strong and per. 
vasive influence exerted by Mr. Greeley upon 
Western immigration. Of the early settlers, every 
third man bases his highest claim to distinction 
upon the fact that, he once had a letter from 
Mr. Greeley or an interview with him. There 
must be hundreds and hundreds of Mr. Greeley’s 
“ Go West” letters treasured on the walls or 
hidden away in the drawers or old “ secretaries’ - ' 
in the farm houses of Minnesota and Dakota. 
He was that sort of unique genius, as bis friends 
well remember, to whom everybody felt entitled 
to go for advice; and not once, but half a 
dozen times have I been met with some such 
greeting as this, from grizzled old fellows who 
first crossed the plains in a prairie schooner : 
“From The Tribune, hey? Well, now, really 1 
I bin takin’ The Tribune ever sence it begun. I 
uster know Mr. Greeley down in York State when 
he come our way, speakin’. I had a letter from 
him onct. I writ to him askin’ what he thort 
about my cornin’ West, and I’ll show what he 
writ back.” Then they hunt around and present- 
ly fish out one of Mr. Greeley’s disconcerting 
communications, browned with age, and ask me 
to read it. Well, maybe I do, or maybe I don’t, 
but I manage to leave them satisfied. The gen- 
eration sent inte the West by Mr. Greeley, to Kan- 
sas, Illinois, Wisconsin, and those States, to which 
Dakotans refer as “ down East,” is now some- 
what advanced in years. But their children re- 
main, and with them the name of Horace Greeley 
stands for the highest courage and wisdom. 
There is something touching about the affectionate 
way in which he is mentioned in the West, and 


particularly by the children of those who were, 
in the stricter sense, his contemporaries, and who 
knew the sympathetic interest he always took in 
Western problems. People act on their impulses 
here, and there is probably no quicker way of 
creating a riot than by assailing the memory of 
Horace Greeley. 

In Aberdeen I ran across an old man who 
glories m an experience with Mr. Greeley, to the 
story of which every one who meets him is expected 
to listen. He was an Iowa pioneer. He had 
lived in Ncw-England, and once he heard Mr. 
Greeley lecture on the West. That settled him.’ 
He took a homestead in Iowa, near a little town 
which he soon came to look upon as the best 
and grandest spot on the footstool. While visit- 
ing New-York afterward he thought he would 
call on Mr. Greeley and tell him about “ Kolly 
P’int.” So I went to The Trybune Buildin’,” he 
says, “ an’ w’en it come my turn I went inter 
the room where Mr. Greeley was. I guess the 
man that was in the room before me must hev 
riled him some, fer he looked mad. an’ jest give 
me a nod as much as ter say, ‘Speak quick!’ So 
I sailed in. I tole him he was the means o’ my 
goin’ West, an’ I’d settled at “ Kolly P’int an* 
it was the finest place in the country, an’ he 
orter put a piece in the paper sayin’ so. 

“ ‘Les'see,’ sez’e, ‘ain’t thet the town where nine 
men was kilt by a desperado a little w’ile ergo?’ 

“Well, they hed been a little kinder squabble 
there on account of a cow-puncher ridin’ aroun’ 
town shootin’ people, and I s’pose they was 
somebody got hurt. So I sez: ‘Yes, thet’s the 
town,’ and he give a grunt. I see then thet I 
hed ter ’polergize fer the cow-puncher, so I sez, 
sez I: ‘Kolly Pint is a splendid place, Mrj 
Greeley. It hez the finest soil, the finest air, 
the finest water you ever see. It don’t need 
Dothin’ in the worl’, 'ceppin’ a little good serciety 
an’ a little rain.’ 

“ ‘Hump!’ sez’ee. ‘thet's all Hell needs!’” 

Dakota is not as badly off as Kolly P’int and the 
other place in the matter of society, but it does 
need rain. No problem is so full of difficulty 
as that which attends the proper irrigation of 
the soil. If, at the appropriate season, a suffi- 
ciency of water gets into the ground it will stay 
there, and its effect in keeping the soil fresh and 
damp will be felt for months. It cannot get 
through the hard clay that lies under the soil 
proper, and the soil, a spongy substance, holds it 
in suspension and uses every drop of it.. But 
this is not enough, or, at least, it cannot be 
depended on. It was because people believed 
it never rained in this region that Dakota, a 
dozen years ago, was termed the “ Great Ameri- 
can Desert.” Undoubtedly the rainfall is in- 
creasing every year as the broken ground in- 
creases, and the conditions that generate moisture 
multiply. The people need waterways. They 
need sources from which irrigating streams can 
be drawn. 

Just north of Milbank is the line which separates 
the waters of North America— “ the Divide,” as 
they call it here. There are two long, narrow 
lakes marking the boundary between Dakota and 
Minnesota. The waters of the lower lake, Big 
Stone, empty through the Minnesota River into 
the Mississippi at Fort Snelling, a few miles 
below St. Paul, and are carried thence to the 
Gulf. The waters of the upper lake, Traverse, 


18 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


empty through the Red River of the North into 
Hudson’s Bay. These twin lakes are but four 
miles apart and are connected by a narrow natural 
stream. It would be a simple engineering teat 
and not an expensive one accord, 
ing to public reports, to make these 
waters navigable, and when that is done 
an outlet by water from the Dakota wheatfields 
to the South through the Minnesota, and to Europe 
through the short Hudson’s Bay route, will be 
had and will allord these people a great advantage. 
'1 hen. coming from the furthest regions of North- 
western Montana, and running through the middle 
of the Dakotas, is the Missouri. At Yanktou it 
meets the idle and useless “ Jim.” 'the Jim flows 
through the Dakotas, along a course lust half-way 
between the Missouri on the west and the Red 
and Big Sioux on the east.. These streams afford 
a sufficiency of water for all practical purposes, 
if only it were utilized, and to those schemes 
best ca leu la lea to bring it into service as a means 
of keeping the soil in good condition and of reach- 
ing markets cheaply, the attention of the new 
States will be auicklv directed. 

Milbank is placed in that limited portion of 
South Dakota which is well supplied with natural 
6l reams. They rise among and run through a 
range of “ coteaus and coolies.” or. as we should 
term them in the East, hills and ravines, which, 
thirty miles wide, extend, north and south, a 
distance of 125 miles. The coteaus rise about 
1,000 feet above Hie prairies, and are ccvered 
with natural timber. They are already availing 
to devote the country around Milbank to the rais- 
ing of stock. They furnish grazing grounds and 
shelter for large herds of sheep and cattle. Every 
year the droves grow larger and this branch of 
industry more important. Throughout Dakota an 
interest in blooded stock is developing. At Yank- 
tou. at Watertown, at Aberdeen, and particularly 
at Milbank. large stables of line imported horses 
and cattle have been established. One stable at 
Milbank contains twelve magnificent Clydesdales 
brought directly rroiu Scotland to be sold as 
breeders of draft horses. Several Hainbletonians, 
with pedigrees as long as their legs, are creating 
a trotting stock whose records are not to be 
despised. Hundreds of polled Angus cattle have 
been brought over recently from Aberdeen. Scot- 
land. The natural result of these importations 
is to produce throughout Dakota a high class of 
horses and cattle. 

Here, as everywhere else in South Dakota, the 
instances of phenomenally successful farming are 
multiplied, until the conclusion seems irresistible, 
as it really is, that a man can’t work and stay 
poor. The country about Milbank is nine years 
old. but it is thickly settled and under cultiva- 
tion already. In 1880 the first editor in Milbank 
brought his printing outfit across the plains in 
an ox-cart. He issued a paper when there were 
not white men enough in the county to fill the 
public offices and half-breed Indians had to be 
employed in important places. I have already told 
how the railroads preceded civilization in Dakota. 
A chapter might well be written on the experiences 
of the editors who preceded the railroads. They 
must have been in love with their profession. 
When men print newspapers in a region inhabited 
only by themselves, a “ bunch of Iniuns” and an 
occasional jack-rabbit, it is tolerably clear that 
the printing of newspapers was their destiny. 
They furnish a powerful argument for the Theo- 
sophist. If they were not working off the sins 
of an earlier existence, what under the sun were 
they doing? 

There are Indians at Milbank, and, as usual, 
the problem is how to make them honest and in- 
dustrious. They are the Sisseton and Wahpcton 
Sioux— dwellers by the lakes and dwellers among 
the leaves. They number less than 1,500 anil 
they have 1,000,000 acres of land that they 
neither use nor let any one else use. These 
Sioux are civilized Sioux. They all wear civilized 
clothes and go to church on Sunday. Their two 
great men are the chief and the preacher. A 
“ bunch” of them— they “ bunch” Indians in this 


country— went down to Watertown last summer 
to attend the fair. Races were arranged for 
them; in fact, an entire day was given up to 
their amusement. But, somehow, nothing seemed 
to please them. They were glum and ugly. 
They stood around and grunted, did more or less 
thieving, but upon no consideration would they 
become cheerful. The fair committee, in some 
distress, appealed to their native clergyman, a 
big Injun of vast influence among them. What 
ailed the Indians ? the committee asked. Why 
weren’t they enjoying themselves ? The preacher, 
Grenville by name, made a gesture of disgust. 
“ Bah! ’ he said, “ white man no gamble a cent!” 
These Indians, as I said before, are civilized. 

Efforts are now being made to open the reserva- 
tion to settlement. Under the present law it 
can be done by the proclamation of the President 
upon the Indians giving their consent. They are 
tractable. Ail they want is money. They have 
taken their lands in severalty and are self-sup- 
porting to an extent. It doesn’t take a great deal 
to support beings who esteem dead dogs a delicacy. 
As for this being the fact, let no one deny it. I 
have seen enough of the Indian' to know that he 
is the dirtiest thing that walks on two legs. 

L. E. Q. 


IX. 


CONTEST FOR STATEHOOD. 


A LONG AND BITTER STRUGGLE TO GET 
INTO THE UNION. 

DIVISION AND THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN 
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN DAKOTA. 

Mitchell, South Dakota, May 4. 

If the people of the East, at any time during 
the long and costly struggle maintained by the 
Dakotans after political rights and civil liberty, 
had only Imown the real facts of the case, the 
real nature of the difficulties these people were 
aeeking to overcome, the real nature of the op- 
posing interests they were endeavoring to satisfy, 
the real grounds upon which they based their 
claims to a star in the National banner, and, above 
all, the real nature of the influences at work in 
Washington to defeat their just aims and con- 
ceded rights— if the people of the East had only 
understood these things, the history of Dakota’s 
admission into the Union would have been very 
different from what it is. Our National system, 
it is true, is wonderfully elastic. It admits of 
the harmmious operation of interests wholly di- 
verse and ordinarily opposite. In a political 
envelope less ethereal, less sympathetic, disorder 
would be inevitable. But our happy experience, 
darkened by only a single tempest, and that tri- 
umphantly braved, should not make us careless 
and neglectful of other nffairs than our im- 
mediate and particular own. Boston is a nice 
town, vastly important folks live there, but Boston 
should remember that Duluth is doubling her pop- 
ulation every three years, that Omaha is growing 
more rapidly than Chicago, that $30,000,000 in 
minerals came out of Montana last year, and, in 
brief, that there is a great, big, magnificent world 
out here trying to live under the same laws with 
Boston. How many people in N ew-York realize 
that when they have reached the spot I am writing 
from, they are only half-way across the American 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


19 


Continent? TIow many of them understand that 
in adding Dakota, Montana and Washington to 
the Union, we have taken in an area greater than 
the combined areas of Maine, New- Hampshire, 
Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, New- York, Pennsylvania, New- Jersey, 
Maryland, the two Virginias, the two Carolinas, 
•Ohio ana Indiana? When this is considered, and 
when we test our recollections to discover 
how much or how little we have followed the 
amazing story of Northwestern development, and 
the history of the political oppression these people 
have suttered, the statement may not be so very 
surprising that in their single-handed light for 
their rights they have more than once approached 
the line between constitutional agitation and ac- 
tive rebellion. There have been times during the 
last four years when it was an open question with 
many of them whether, between the evils of ex- 
pelling their oppressors or permitting themselves 
to be robbed and outraged, they would not fare 
better on the whole by taking the revolutionary 
course. It will ever remain an honor to the 
founders of these States that harassed with so 
many internal jealousies, fought with so many 
unfair and malicious weapons at Washington, they 
have succeeded in their undertaking without com- 
promise on the one hand or violence on the other. 

Dakota, as cut from Minnesota, was a block of 
land 400 miles square. The southern part of it 
was settled more rapidly than the northern, and 
by a different class of people, who came upon a 
different plan and engaged in a different pur- 
suit. The people of Vermont are not more dis- 
tinct as a type from the people of Georgia than 
are the settlers of South Dakota from their 
neighbors north of the 7th standard parallel. 
The South Dakotans are engaged in general 
farming upon small holdings of from 160 to 
320 acres. The North Dakotans raise nothing 
but wheat and stock and they operate upon a 
colossal scale. There are many farms in North 
Dakota of 20,000 acres. In North Dakota 
there are the extremes of wealth and poverty to 
be found wherever tie employers are few and the 
employed many. In South Dakota wealth and 
poverty are comparative terms. There are no 
palaces and no poor-houses. The Territorial 
Government of Dakota was established in 1861, 
and by 1880 the diversity of interest between 
North and South became so apparent that both sec- 
tions were favorably disposed toward division, 
which became at about that time an organized 
movement. 

Until Mr. Cleveland’s inauguration there had 
been no party politics in Dakota. Everybody 
had a general idea as to the party attachments 
of everybody else, and the Republicans possessed 
an organization, but in conventions and other as- 
semblies intended to promote the welfare of the 
Territory, and in the Territorial Legislature, no 
partisan distinctions were made. .Everybody 
could get himself nominated who made the effort, 
and voters often had a chance to choose between 
half a dozen aspirants. As distinguished from 
party polities, there existed a sort, of town politics, 
the demoralizing effects of which are still ap- 
parent in the South Dakota capital contest. 
Men went to the Legislature, not to advance the 
interests of the whole people, not to make laws 
for the whole Territory, but to get what they 
could for their own towns. Their availability 
as political leaders was measured, not by the 
wisdom of their general course, but simply by 
what they got for their friends. In this respect, 
and very naturally, every Legislature was worse 
than the last, one. This body became a sort of 
grab-bag. Little time was wasted on the con- 
sideration of general laws. The code became an 
inconsistent jumble. What one Legislature did, 
the next undid. There was no restraint, no an- 
chorage, no fundamental law. and so far as a 
government existed, it was simply one of give 
and take. If one town received an appropria- 
tion for a school of mines, then another one had 
to have a university. The rule was that you 


could only get what you wanted by giving me 
what I wanted. 

In this eternal clashing of town interests North 
Dakota drew most of the prizes. The politicians 
of N orth Dakota almost invariably outmanoeuvred 
their rivals of the South. They were, and are, an 
uncommonly clever set of men, and they worked 
together, contriving at the same time to divide 
the South and split it into factions. Then they 
combined with whichever Southern faction it 
seemed best to combine with, and they and their 
allies got the pudding. But their affections were 
iickle. Now they stood by one faction, then by 
another, and then again by a third, until they 
had alternately won and lost the favor of the 
entire South, and the conviction had gradually 
sunk into the minds of both sections that their 
ways lay apart, that they were too different in 
motive, in manner and in habit, to assimilate 
advantageously. This was the condition of pub- 
lic sentiment when in 1883 a call was circulated 
through South Dakota for a convention to meet 
at Huron to form a State Constitution. It was 
proposed to create a State, to be called Dakota, of 
which the northern boundary should be the 
forty-sixth parallel. An earlier effort had been 
made to get the State admitted in 1881, and it 
had failed only by a fluke which furnished the 
Democrats in the Territory choice material for 
inflammatory speeches. A railroad had been built 
from Yankton to somewhere, and its bonds were 
.hieflv held in Maine. It bad failed and 
defaulted, and its Maine creditors were com- 
pelled to whistle for their money. Their Con- 
gressional Representatives, all Republicans, 
prompted by tins lne.dent, opposed the Dakota 
bill, and beat, it, contending that people who 
didn’t pay their debts were not yet fit for citizen- 
ship. This was an unfortunate affair, though 
not an unnatural one, for there had been no 
preliminary agitation of any account on the 
Statehood question, and Congress was poorly 
informed on the merits of the Admission bill, quite 
aside from the Maine grievance. 

In the Huron Convention they made a 
series of absurd speeches, advocating the 
expulsion of the Federal Governor by 
force and the establishment of a State Gov- 
ernment which Congress might admit or not, just 
as it chose. They had a considerable following, 
too, but wiser men carried the day, and the only 
outcome of the convention was a call to the 
people south of the 4 6th parallel to elect 
delegates to a second convention to meet at 
Sioux Falls in September. 

There was an even hundred present at this as- 
sembly. One-third of the members were Democrats. 
An once the convention divided into Conservatives 
and Radicals. All the Democrats were Radicals 
and they indulged in much bitter 
talk. They wanted to give the Government at 
Washington to undertsand that they would stand 
no more nonsense. Dakota must be divided; the 
northern half was a drag on the south; the two 
sections were in no way sympathetic; the time 
for talk was gone, and it was now high time to 
act. This oratory was met, ot course, by the 
practical question, “ What do you propose to do?” 
But the Radicals could furnish no very definite 
answer. They contented themselves with the 
threat to go home. They urged that if the Con- 
servati/es didn’t mean business, they ought to 
sav so. Finally the convention settled down to 
the work of forming the constitution, and three 
full weeks were spent in that serious labor. Its 
issue was an instrument ol' much strength and 
beauty in many respects, and notably in its sim- 
plicity. its directness, its lucidity and its happy 
grouping of constitutional forms and declarations, 
a model of which a far more experienced people 
might well be proud. Upon its completion the 
storm broke out with renewed fury between the 
Conservatives and Radicals concerning the methods 
that should be employed to give it effect. The 
Radicals, or Democrats, as they were and became 


20 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


in name a year later, wished to proceed at once 
with the election of State oliicers, who were to go 
ahead and administer a State 'government, and 
their proposition won a temporary triumph. But 
again conservative men succeeded in stem- 
ming the revolutionary tide, and it was 
finally decided simply to appoint a committee to 
present the convention’s petition to Congress, 
and in the hope that this orderly plan would avail 
the convention adjourned. 

Until this moment the people north of the 46th 
parallel had been as warmly committed to the 
policy of division as those south of it. But an 
incident occurred in the Legislature that immedi. 
ateiy succeeded this convention which rendered the 
North Dakotans less anxious to be cut away. The 
Territorial capital was Yankton, in the extreme 
southeast. Feeble efforts to remove it uad been 
frequently made, but none of them amounted to 
much until the organizing genius of Larmon G. 
Johnson was brought to bear upon the scheme 
to do a good thing for Dakota, and incidentally 
for himself and his friends, by placing the capital 
buildings at Ordway. Johnson is a Democrat, 
and as brilliant a politician as the Territory con- 
tains. ‘In the light of events his scheme seems 
preposterous, but his failure to carry it through 
was not due to the fact that his dice were not 
loaded. He had things about as well fixed as 
is possible to any finite hand. Ordway was a 
two-penny little hamlet, squatted upon the prairie 
at a point that was the centre of thle Territory’s 
population. Mr. Johnson lived there, moved 
there, had his being there. He was practically 
all there was to Ordway. In appearance he does 
not look an intellectual giant, but he possesses 
great nerve, and he “ rustles.” He and his 
friends bought about 40,000 acres around Ordway, 
and when he began to agitate the removal question 
he knew what he was about. He was unable to 
induce the Legislature to discharge its functions 
directly, for its members were timid, but he 
worked through a bill appointing nine commis- 
sioners with full and final powers to place the 
capital where they chose. The commission spent 
several months junketing about the Territory, os- 
tensibly considering the claims of the various 
towns. But none of them offered such induce- 
ments as Ordway. Ordway was prepared to build 
the State a $250,000 Capitol and give it land 
enough for a stock farm. 

When the commission began to ballot, Mr. John- 
son felt quite confident of the issue. One man, 
however, weakened. The papers had been saying 
disagreeable things about him, hinting that Mr. 
Johnson had “ fixed” him, and his hand faltered. 
The commission began to ballot, taking precious 
good care not to do so effectively, ard after a 
while Bismarck received four votes. The starch- 
less gentleman made it five, and went to Bismarck 
to live. Mr. Johnson made a few picturesque 
remarks, returned to Ordway, and putting his 
town on wheels, carted it off to Aberdeen. An 
elderly German innkeeper was about all he left 
in the deserted village. She was reduced to de- 
spair. She stood out in the twilight one evening 
watching the town as it disappeared across the 
prairie. Mr. Johnson rode up on his pony. They 
were a solemn pair. 

“ Well, mother,” said he, affectionately, “ you’re 
not looking well.” 

“ Ah, Mr. Shonson,” she replied, with a sob, 
“ how now I make my life 1” 

Mr. Johnson stroked his mustache thoughtfully. 

“ Er— mm,” he said, “ I’m doing a little thinking 
on that point myself.” 

The effect upon Northern sentiment of the re- 
moval of the capital to Bismarck was at once 
apparent. Bismarck is in the heart of North 
Dakota and the Northern people, having the 
capital safely in their grasp, now became dis- 
tinctively cool about the division project. Thev 
were also annoyed at the South for refusing their 
proposition to divide on the 7th standard parallel, 
which separates counties from counties, rather 


than on the 4 6th, and to call the States North 
Dakota and South Dakota. The Sioux Fails con. 
vention had adopted the name Dakota, to which 
the North justly felt it had as much claim a., the 
South. In the meanwhile the committee sent to 
Washington by the convention had returned, after 
spending the winter at the National Capital, with 
nothing but discouragement and failure to report. 
It was in no very good humor, therefore, that the 
Kepublican Territorial Convention of 1864 met 
in Pierre to nominate a candidate for Congress. 

They tell me that of all the shows on earth 
a Territorial Convention is the funniest. Be the 
end sought great or small, be the offices disposed 
of important or trivial, no Territorial Convention 
would think of adjourning in less than two or 
three days. They meet and fuss a little and go 
to dinner, come back and fuss some more and go 
to tea, return and fuss like everything and go to 
bed. On the morning of the second day, they 
are beginning to feel in good shape, like a race- 
horse after he has got warmed up, and they 
enter upon the day’s fussing with a robust enthu- 
siasm. The excitement is usually at its height 
on the evening of the second day, when John H. 
King, the General Husted of Dakota, is always 
called to the chair. King is the only chairman 
who has been known to survive the second night 
of a Territorial Convention. On the third day 
being somewhat tired, it usually occurs to the 
convention to do the ten-minute job for which it 
assembled. A ballot is taken, and the thing is 
over. The Pierre convention, however, eclipsed 
all that had gone before. For four days and 
nights the flood-gates of everybody’s wrath were 
kept open. The only real business to be done 
was to nominate a Congressman, who was only a 
half Congressman at that, but not until the 
fifth day did they get down to work. Then they 
all began to explain to one another, and North 
and South, parted on good terms, reunited in 
favor of division. The Southern men, however, 
seem to have been pursued by a fatality. As 
soon as the Legislature met they hatched a 
scheme to rob Bismarck of the capitol and to 
send it down to Pierre. They actually passed 
such a bill, which the Governor wisely vetoed. 
But its effect was to arouse the resentment of 
the North against the South with renewed 
vigor. 

This, then, was the condition of affairs when Mr. 
Cleveland became President. In the twinkling of 
an eye the Democratic party of the Territory 
sprang into organized being, and the larger part 
of it hurried off to Washington to give the Ad- 
ministration some good advice. It came buck solid 
agairst division. Those dauntless Radicals who. 
the year before, had wanted to smash everybody’s 
head, who were going to divide and set up a 
State Government whether or no, now, meek as 
lambs and twice as guileless, urged the sweet 
virtues ol moderation and peace. Every Demo- 
crat in South Dakota, without, enoueh exceptions 
to fill a claim shanty, doubled on his record, and 
from a rampant Divisionist, ripe for rebellion, 
became a One State man, inclined to think a 
Territorial form of government,, after all, the 
best! The Democrats then gave themselves over 
to the business of grabbing for office. They had 
no time to fool -with unprofitable questions of how 
to found an empire. Keeeiverships. collector- 
ships, land offices judicial offices— upon the e tlrnos 
their hearts and minds were concentrated with 
an intense and lusty longing. They said that 
circumstances altered cases: that the sacred lib- 
erties of the people were no longer in danger of 
being overthrown, and that with a, good man like 
Cleveland holding the plums of official patronage 
and dealing them out to trusty souls, the Terri- 
tory would get, along better than if it were running 
itself. The Legislature of 1884 had summoned 
another Constitutional Convention— the third— to 
meet- at Sioux Falls in September, 1885. It came 
togethp” under rather a gloomy sky. 

I shall continue and conclude this historical and 
political sketch in a later article. L. E. Q. 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


21 


X. 


FIGHTING FOR CIVIL LIBERTY. 


A REVOLT AGAINST SYSTEMATIC INJUSTICE. 


XIONEST SETTLERS PERSECUTED IN A DESPER- 
ATE POLITICAL CAMPAIGN. 

Mitchell, South Dakota, May 6. 

In an earlier article relating the political con- 
dition of South Dakota, I spoke of the 
various efforts that had been made to divide the 
Territory, and to admit the lower half of it prior 
to the incoming of Mr. Cleveland’s Administra- 
tion. It was well understood before the Sioux 
Fails Convention of 1885 assembled that the 
Democrats in a body would oppose all they had 
been theretofore seeking to accomplish. Stories 
were already in circulation vagueJy’hinting that 
there had been immense land frauds committed 
in Dakota under the Republican Administrations, 
and the sinister suggestion appeared in many 
forms and through many sources, that in all 
probability at least half the patents issued to 
the small farmers of South Dakota would have 
to be revoked by the virtuous gentlemen who 
were conducting the Nation’s affairs. The Trib- 
une’s Washington correspondent, it will be 
remembered— and is most gratefully remembered 
here— pounced at once upon these adroitly cir- 
culated stories and declared with some warmth 
and directness that the officials of the Interior 
Department, seconded by the Territorial Democ- 
racy, were engaged in a conspiracy to steal the 
proposed new State from the Republicans. It 
was charged that Mr. Lamar had gone into the 
Interior Office as Mr. Whitney went into the Naval 
Office, resolutely determined to prove fraud on 
his predecessor, whether there was any fraud to 
prove or not. Before taking off their hats and 
coats, they gave the public to understand that 
there would be some exposures now, right off. 
There would be no more nouscuse, and with many 
mysterious nods and winks they notified the 
country that it should shortly be put into posses- 
sion of some hair-lifting facts. 

Sparks’s antics in the Land Office were par- 
ticularly disquieting to the Dakota farmers. At 
first they didn’t understand just what was meant. 
They didn’t quite see the point— they didn’t ;atch 
the idea that their patents were fraudulent only 
in case they eoninued to vote the Republican 
ticket, and that if they concluded to readjust 
their political relations they would thereby im- 
part a saving grace to their land titles. All they 
perceived at first was that the rights they had 
acquired, and the claims upon which thousands 
were about to submit their final proofs, were 
suddenly menaced by an indefinite charge of 
fraud, brought by the very official who was con- 
stituted in law the judge of the evidence. 

Another affair that caused much grumbling and 
alarm was the sudden reversal of President 
Arthur’s order opening the Crow Creek Indian 
Reservation. This reservation, comprising 622,000 
acres, is on the eastern bank of the Missouri, just 
above Chamberlain, and almost engulfing that 
young city, it can be laid open for settlement 
upon the President’s order. General Arthur, after 
a careful study of the law and the facts, issued 
a proclamation on February 17, 1885, opening the 


lands, and settlers went in by hundreds. In two 
weeks claims were filed on about half the reserva- 
tion, a thousand shanties were being built, and 
the hammer and plough were everywhere at work. 
On March 17, thirteen days after he took office, 
Mr. Cleveland annulled General Arthur’s action so 
maturely taken, closed the reservation, and ordered 
the settlers oft. Only a few obeyed this order, 
and the President, as if determined to admit of 
nothing that tended to make Dakota greater or 
more prosperous, sent a troop of soldiers and drove 
the settlers from the reservation. They went out 
literally at the point of the bayonet, and looked 
back to see the Indians, unmolested, burning and 
cutting down the little houses in which, upon the 
Government s own offer, they had established 
themselves. The local Democracy, emboldened by 
these demonstrations and returning from Washing- 
ton loaded with instructions, were soon indis- 
creetly declaring what the policy was that had 
been determined upon. They said it was highly 
important that the Senators to be admitted with 
the new State should be Democrats, and so soon 
as it was reasonably clear that the Democratic 
minority would become upon Dakota’s admission 
a majority, all would be well. To that end it 
was necessary to manufacture some Democratic 
voters in the Territory. 


The Sioux Falls Convention, not heeding these 
political clouds, met quietly and did its work. 
It drew up a new Constitution, and again the 
proposition was made to elect State officers and 
form a State Government, but it was received with 
coldness by the- late Radicals. Twitted with their 
inconsistency, they naively replied that they were 
satisfied with the way things were going now, and 
they couldn’t think of disturbing it. By a large 
majority, however, the convention voted to order 
a State election, but it was patriotically and 
wisely provided that the government thus con- 
stituted should perform only such acts as were 
preliminary' to the Territory’s admission and 
necessary to secure favorable action from Congress 
upon its petition. The Constitution was sub- 
mitted to the people south of the forty-sixth 
parallel immediately! and, in a total vote of 
31,791, its majority was 18,561. Under its pro- 
visions and by popular election, a State Govern- 
ment was organized, with the Hon. Arthur C. 
Mellette at its head. Governor Mellette has re- 


cently been appointed by President Harrison to the 
office for which he was thus selected by the people 
of his State. The strong common-sense which 
has so highly distinguished the conduct of the 
Dakotans in civil affairs was never more con- 
spicuously shown than in his selection as their 
leader. He is a large-minded, liberal-hearted man. 
In physical form and in mental quality he is 
built on a large scale. He has none of the arts 
of the smart politician. He could not be cunning 
if he tried ever so much. Sincerity and di- 
rectness are his most conspicuous characteristics. 
He does not know how to bargain and arrange, 
but he does know how to plan and execute. In 
his personal appearance he is startlingly like 
General Garfield, and those who know him say 
the resemblance does not stop there, but that in 
temper and in his cheery, optimistic faith he is 
Garfield over again. 


Governor Mellette’s coadjutors in the new State 
organization were the Hon. Hugh S. Murphy, 
Secretary of State ; the Hon. D. W. Diggs, Treas- 
urer ; the Hon. Frank Alexander, Auditor, and 
the Hon. Robert Dollard, Attorney-General. 
General W. H. H. Beadle was chosen Commissioner 
of School Lands, his duties being to administer 
upon the fund to be raised for public school 
purposes by the sale or leasing of sections 16 and 
3 6, each a square mile in area, reserved by the 
United States out of every township, or block of 
36 square miles, to be donated to the State, 
when formed. A. S. Jones was made Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction. The Hon. O. S- 
Gifford and the Hon. Theodore D. Kanouse were 
elected to Congress, and when the Legislature 
met in December it chose Judge G. C. Moody, 


22 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


of the Black Hills, and Judge A. J. Edgerton, 
of this city, to be United Suites Senators. The 
Governor, the two Senators and the two Congress- 
men were appointed a committee to go to Wash- 
ington and to present the Territorial case to Con- 
gress. 

General Harrison was at this time chairman of 
the Senate Committee on Territories, aud he 
espoused the cause of Dakota with an enthusiasm 
that left no doubt of the result in the chamber 
in whicn he was a leader. But the moment they 
encountered the Presiuent they struck shoals. 
That tireless and keen-witted Ordway statesman, 
the Hon. Harmon G. Johnson, of whose brilliant 
device to capture the eapitol I have already told 
you, had preceded them and had taken complete 
possession of the President’s ears. Mr. Johnson 
was a one-State man. He was not a believer 
in the Democratic notion that a Republican 
majority of 20,000 could be starved and bull- 
dozed into subjection. He knew that both 
divisions of the Territory were surely and salely 
Republican, and he could see no sense in giving 
the enemy four Senators rather than two. More- 
over, having towed Ordway down to Aberdeen, 
he was beginning to think that Aberdeen would 
be a good place for the capital of the single 
State* He had his One-State bill in Ins pocket 
ready to spring it in the House so soon as the 
Republicans made their move in the Senate. 

At their first interview with the President, ob- 
tained only after much difficulty, the Republican 
committee were treated with downright incivility. 
“ You have no business with me, gentlemen,” he 
said; “ none whatever, I assure you. Go to Con- 
gress, get your bill passed. Then my auty will 
begin. In the meanwhile, 1 do not care to talk 
with you, for I am satisfied you mean mischief!” 

Mean mischief, indeed! This, coming from the 
head of an Administration whose officials were 
then actually engaged in a conspiracy to cheat 
honest settlers of their homes, the farms they had 
been cultivating for years, with the sole object 
of forcing the Territory to become Democratic! 

Governor Mellette asked the President how he 
had reached the conclusion that they meant mis- 
chief. He replied that their formation of a State 
Government while yet a Territorial dependency 
was a species of rebellion. They urged that 
this view of their conduct was wholly unfounded, 
since the convention upon whose authority they 
had organized had explicitly directed them to 
commit no acts and take no measures except 
such as were in aid of the Territory’s admission. 
They then proceeded to enlighten the President’s 
mind upon matters of history. They showed that 
their course was identical with that pursued 
by Tennessee, and that the then President, George 
Washington, so far from rebuffing Tennessee’s 
representatives, so far from accusing them of 
mischief, so far from declaring, that they had 
no business with him, had, on the contrary, 
forwarded their petition to Confess accompanied 
with a special message urging its immediate and 
favorable consideration. Mr. Cleveland’s manner 
became decidedly more gracious as these facts 
reached his mind, but they did not avail to 
render him a whit more favorably inclined 
toward the cause of Dakota. The Senate bill, 
drawn to admit South Dakota, passed the Senate 
and failed in the House. It was ^tabbed to pieces 
by the ingenious Mr. Springer. 

Meanwhile the crusade upon the settlers had 
gone on with conscienceless vigor. Sparks had 
the effrontery to declare that 90 per centum of 
the entries made upon lands in the Northwest 
were fraudulently obtained either by perjury or 
in the interest of speculators, a statement 60 
utterly preposterous as to be difficult of reconcilia- 
tion with the notion that Sparks was sane. 
The Land Commissioner of the Interior Department 
is an absolute monarch. At any time before 
the actual issue of the patent, he can turn the 
settler from his homestead at pleasure. He made 


an order suspending the issue of patents until 
every application was specially investigated. This 
order produced in Dakota the wildest confusion 
and entailed upon settlers all such losses, amount- 
ing, of course, to many thousands of dollars, as 
must naturally ensue upon a wholesale destruction 
of land titles. Nobody knew what he could do. 
He could not sell his claim, he could not let it, and 
it was a question whether or not it was worth while 
even to cultivate it. Thousands upon thousands 
of settlers who came into South Dakota with the 
second tide of immigration in 1880 and 1881 were 
now just about ready to put in their final proofs 
of actual occupancy and cultivation, and to receive 
their titles. Sparks’s order left them all at sea. 

There was one thing that prevented the success 
of this Democratic steal. Few people could be 
found despicable enough to live among these farm- 
ers and aid in doing them such fatal injury. It 
could only be accomplished through the land 
agents here, and they soon found their task 
odious. They exerted themselves ably and effi- 
ciently in that part of the conspiracy directed 
toward the promotion of Democratic immigration,, 
but they sooit grew tired of that other part calling 
on them to harass and browbeat settlers by de- 
laying the issue of titles until they revised their 
politics. Such of them as persisted in doing this 
dirty work became objects of general contempt. 
The rank and file of the Territorial Democracy 
looked -with undisguised disgust upon the whole 
business. Its effects were too cruel and too dis- 
honest for men of decent blood to witness tamely. 
Everybody in Dakota, no matter what his politics 
might be, knew that charges of general fraud were 
lies. They knew that general fraud was impossi- 
ble, and that even an individual fraud could be 
perpetrated only by far-reaching aud systematic 
deviltry. The game was not worth the powder. 
The Territories are settled, except along the line 
of the Northern Pacific land grant in the Red 
River Valley, by small farmers, owning from 160 
to 320 acres. There are only two farms in South 
Dakota of more than 1,500 acres. The question 
of the faithful performance of the Homestead law’s 
conditions is one that adjusts itself. Everybody 
is watching like a hawk to avail himself of the 
advantages to be derived from exposing the neg- 
lect or fraud of everybody else. The Interior De- 
partment officials learned in time that they could 
not make their miserable trickery profitable, and 
they gave it up. But not before they had inflicted 
heavy loss upon thousands of poor and honest set- 
tlers under the wicked pretext that they were re- 
forming the administration of the land laws. 

YVhat remains of the history of Dakota’s 
division and admission is National, and was a 
consequence of the late Presidential election. 
The Republican party declared its policy at 
Chicago by admitting eight delegates from South 
Dakota, the quota to which it -would be entitled 
as a State, and but two from North Dakota, which 
has not yet adopted a State Constitution. When 
General Harrison was found to be elected, the 
Democrats realized that nothing remained for 
them but to save what they could from the wreck 
of their plans. They knew if they failed to- 
pass an enabling act, it would be done, and done 
just as South Dakota desired, by the next Con- 
gress, even if the President should not summon 
an extra session for that very purpose, so soon 
os he was inaugurated. They yielded to the 
inevitable, however, very reluctantly. They did 
their best to prevent the division, and forced at 
last to abandon that feature of their opposition 
they set up a device to secure the defeat of the 
Sioux Falls Constitution. They utterly refused 
to accept the vote of November, 1885, as final, 
and the Omnibus bill as it passed makes a series 
of ridiculous provisions as to the process of South 
Dakota’s admission. It orders a new conven- 
tion, and directs that when the people vote for 
delegates they shall also vote once more for or 
against the Sioux Falls Constitution. If they 
declare again in favor of it, the convention 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


2* 


must amend it by substituting “ South Dakota” 
instead of “ Dakota ” as the name of the State, and 
“ south of the 7th standard parallel” instead of 
“ south of the 4 6th parallel” —they are three 
or four miles apart— as the dividing line. Then, 
not these amendments merely, but tbe entire 
instrument, must for a third time be subjected to 
the hazard of a popular contest, and if, for a 
third time it endures, South Dakota may proceed 
to be a State. 

It was undoubtedly in the belief that they 
could by hook or by crook' defeat the Consti- 
tution that the Democrats insisted on these 
repeated ballotings. Some of their hopes were hung 
on the liquor section, which orders a prohibitory 
amendment to be submitted to the people, but 
both the Prohibitionists and the liquor men ’ each 
probably fearful lest in another deal they should 
fare worse, profess themselves content. Nor can 
the local Democratic leaders drive their party to 
vote against the Constitution. The people. Demo- 
crats and Republicans alike, are tired of and dis- 
gusted with all this political chess-playing. “ Bill” 
Springer, as they call the individual who calls 
himself “ the father of the four new States,” is 
the object of their unmitigated execration. They 
are expressing their hatred of him by lavishing 
attentions on dear little “ Sunset” Cox, who stood 
by them so boldly last winter. Sunset is coming 
out to Huron to deliver a Fourth of July speech, 
and they are going to make him happier than was 
ever an amiable elderly gentleman before. An 
indiscreet paper at Sioux Falls, thinking someth'ng 
should be done for Springer, suggested that he be 
asked to come there upon a similar errand, a mal- 
adroit suggestion which came alarmingly near 
taking Sioux Falls out of the capital race. 

That the Constitution will pass with practical 
unanimity is everywhere conceded. The Repub- 
licans are a unit upon it, and no Democrat, no 
matter what he would like to do, dares open his 
mouth against it. Popular feeling, aroused by all 
the trickery, intrigue and rascality practised or 
attempted to be practised during the Cleveland 
Administration, will tolerate no more nonsense. 
The people want their Territory admitted at the 
earliest moment possible under the enabling act, 
and they are going to carry things through with a 
rush. They are to elect their delegates to the 
convention on May 14, the convention meets on 


July 4, and its work is submitted in another elec- 
tion on October 1, at which tbe State officers will 
also be chosen. These dates apply to the process 
of admission in North Dakota, Montana and Wash- 
ington also. In each of them, under the Springer 
bill, the minority will be sure of representation, 
as, out of three delegates to be elected from each 
of the twenty-five districts into which the States 
are divided, no person can vote for more than two. 
This vicious principle of robbing the people of a 
third of their franchise rights in order to secure 
the election of persons who could not otherwise 
obtain a majority of the votes cast, is naturally the 
subject of much denunciation. 

Governor Mellette’s appointment was made as 
the result of his earlier election, and of the unani- 
mous indorsement of his name to President Har- 
rison by all the prominent Republicans of the 
Territory. His task upon talcing office was one 
of the greatest difficulty and delicacy. He had 
several hundred appointments to make, and for 
each of them there were hosts of applicants, but 
he has discharged that feature of his duty with 
such tact that scarcely a murmur of dissatisfac- 
tion is heard. His renomination is completely 
assured, no other candidate being so much as 
suggested. The Democrats have no candidate as 
yet. They are a demoralized and disorganized 
party. The factions into which they were tom 
by the long-continued fight between Governor 
Church and Mr. Day, who wanted Church’s 
office, are still arrayed against each other. Day 
is much talked of by his faction as the Guber- 
natorial candidate, and as hopeless defeat is not 
a very enviable distinction, he can probably got 
the nomination if he wants it. Among the Repub- 
licans, who will have almost a unanimous Legis- 
lature, but three men are mentioned as United 
States Senators. These are the Hon. Frank Petti- 
grew, of Sioux Falls, and the two men who were 
elected to the Senate in 1885, Judge Moody and 
Judge Edgerton. Judge Edgerton’s services as 
Chief-Justice of the State Supreme Court are 
thought by most lawyers to be indispensable, and 
it is quite possible that he will be induced to 
accept that important post. The Bar of South 
Dakota will make a great effort to secure a high 
class of talent for the judicial offices. 


L. E. Q. 


24 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


NORTH DAKOTA. 


xi. 


BONANZA FARMS. 


THE RED RIVER VALLEY. 


FARGO THE 3HLPPING POINT FOR A VAST AGRI- 
CULTURAL REGION— SCANDINAVIANS AND 
THEIR WAVS. 

Fargo, North Dakota, May 8. 

Past this city flows the famous Red River of 
the North. East of it, in Minnesota, twenty 
miles, and west of it, in Dakota, forty miles, arc 
lines of hills running parallel with each other and 
the river, and marking in outline an immense 
basin of 10,000 square miles. When the earth 
was young, the wise men say, these hills were 
the banks of a great inland lake, which existed 
during many centuries, and was finally drained 
off through the Red by a slow and deliberate 
process. It left a heavy, black alluvial deposit 
from two to 6ix feet deep, to become the soil 
of a habitable valley in which to-day, though 
only a fifth of it is in use, 35,000,000 bushels 
of wheat, a sixtieth of the world’s crop, is an- 
nually produced. In Dakota there are six Red 
River counties. They contain 7,325 of the 10,000 
quare miles which compose the valley. The rest 
lie across the river in Minnesota. Half the wealth 
of North Dakota reposes in this valley. Half the 
taxes that support the State are collected here. 

The Red River is regarded by Dakotans as a 
noble and majestic stream. In the East it would 
be called a creek ; in the South a “ branch.” This 
illustrates how everything is or is not, according 
to comparison. I heard much of the Jim River 
before I saw it, that it was 800 miles long and 
the life of Central Dakota, and when at last 
my eyes beheld it, I was filled with emotion. A 
fellow with good supple legs can jump across it 
almost anywhere from its source to its mouth. 
Rivers are scarce in Dakota, and they make the 
most of them. Earth, however, is plentiful, and 
if aquatic measurements seem scant, nothing can 
be said to ail notions of distance by land. It 
is told of an Eastern man that he advertised 
to exchange some country property about Huron 
for city property in Huron, and receiving several 
answers he came out to investigate them. One 
of his correspondents met him at the station 
with a wagon, and suggested that they drive to 
look at their respective properties. They pro- 
ceeded some five miles from the city, and the 
Huron man checked his horses. “ Here,” he said, 
“ are my lots, right in the heart of the town, 
as you observe. Now, where’s the country prop- 
erty you want to dispose of?” 

“ We passed it three or four miles back on the 
road.” answered the amazed New-Englander. 
“ What extraordinary notions of distance you peo- 
ple have out here I" 

A pair of ponies educated in this Western 
country would f^cl mortified at being brought 
back to their stable before they had gone at 
leust fifty miles, and if you will' let them, they 
will keep up a steady canter all day, without 
thinking they’ve done anything to boast of. 
While over on the Missouri, I heard of a queer 


patch of land called Hell’s Half Acre, some sixty 
miles from the town I was visiting. 1 was told 
the earth was on fire; that there was a deposit 
of some lignitic substance which had been fired 
by spontaneous combustion last winter and had 
been burning ever since ; that there was no vegeta- 
tion within half a mile of the affected spot; that 
it gave forth a light smoke during the day and 
produced a faint glow at night. I expressed some 
curiosity to see the phenomenon, and an amiable 
friend offered to put a pair of mules and a pair 
of ponies to his sulky and “ draw” me over. 
We went, and besides seeing Hell’s Half Acre, I 
learned all the things that a combination of 
mule and pony in harness can do to the human 
system. The fire appeared to be on the surface 
of the ground, burning downward. It produced 
light ashes and hard cinders. What the com- 
bustible substance was, nobody thereabouts was 
geological enough to say, but it would seem to be 
a very soft coal, more recent in its formation 
than the coal of the carboniferous period, for 
in the examination that had been made I thought 
I could detect vegetable matter in an early stage 
of its conversion into mineral coal. The fire when 
discovered had already spread over about half 
an acre of ground, beyond which it has not since 
gone. Its force is diminishing and, of course, 
as it becomes covered with the ashes and cin- 
ders, it must die out. Our team of mules and 
ponies performed their journey in fifteen hours, 
affording us time to investigate Hell’s Half Acre, 
to chase a jack rabbit, to shoot three wild 
chickens and to make the acquaintance of a 
colony of prairie dogs. The prairie dog is a 
strange being; strange in the class of creatures 
he keeps around him, strange in the social eti- 
quette he so carefully observes, and particularly 
strange in the use he makes of his tail. I would 
give a good deal to have a little conversation 
with him ; to ask him, for instance, why he al- 
ways gives his short, stiff, stubby, little tail 
a jerk when he barks. Nothing could be fun- 
nier than to see 200 or 300 of these little creat- 
ure's, looking just like miniature kangaroo^ 
with their eyes sparkling and their ears cocked 
up, sitting each over a hole in the ground, bark- 
ing away as if their very lives depended on 
their giving so many barks per minute, with 
a prize for the one who should beat the record, 
while their tails go up and down, up and down,' 
with a certainty and rapidity that could not be 
better attained were there an electrical connec- 
tion between tail and throat. They evidently 
possess a great talent for seeing fun. They 
take a cheerful view of life. The difference 
between them as they scamper and play, roll- 
ing over one another in the merriest kind of 
sport, and the stiff, fluffy, sober, little owls who 
[live with them, scarcely ever moving from 
the spot where they seem to be planted, ex- 
cept when they give themselves a sudden lift 
and then drop back into their holes— the differ- 
ence is so wide that you wonder what sort of 
a social relation it is that exists between them. 
The owls seem to have nothing to do with the 
dogs, merely blinking at them now and then in 
a solemn way. Mv own opinion is that the 
owls possess some kind of a sacerdotal function. 

The colony usually contains as many as 2,000 
dog's Their holes are about six feet apart 
and the town is built in an arc perhaps an 
eighth of a mile in circumference. As soon 
as you come within sight, every dog springs to 
his particular hole and stands over it barking 
for dear life. When you approach within a cer- 
tain distance all the dogs in that neighbor- 
hood,’ or ward, so to speak, pop under the 
ground, leaving only the sentinel dog on guard. 
He goes on barking until you get within pis- 
tol-shot range and then he, too, disappears. The 
remoter dogs are still above ground: but if you 
continue to advance thev go below also, until 
the colony is deserted. The owls betake them- 
selves off in an amusing fashion. They emit 


NORTH DAKOTA. 


25 


•one fell shriek and flop. It is an inaccurate de- 
scription to call the sound made by a prairie 
flog a bark. It is a shrill chic ! chic ! chic ! and 
resembles a bark only in that it is monosyllabic 
and produced with the same sort of bodily effort 
that the ordinary canine makes. The prairie 
•logs are cunning, pretty little fellows. It is 
dreadful to think what would happen to one 
•of them if you were to cut off his tail. He would 
probably be as voiceless as a clam. They are 
fast disappearing from the prairies. Like the 
buffalo and the antelope, they will soon be gone 
forever. But I am wandering some 300 miles 
from Fargo and the Red River valley. 

The Northern Pacific Railroad enterprise has 
iS? j a nd unmade a great many great men. 
Thaddeus Stevens was its father. Abraham 
Lincoln signed its first charter. The first com- 
pany that organized for its execution was com- 
posed chiefly of Boston men. They spent the 
time from 1864 to 1869 doing nothing. Then 
■Governor Gregory Smith, of Vermont, took hold 
he succeeded in awakening a widespread 
public interest in it and a merciless opposition 
t° it from the other Pacific roads. He invited 
Jay Cooke to become its financial agent and 
under that wonderful operator, who sustained 
it for four years, it actually completed 550 miles 
of railroad, running from Duluth, via Lake Su- 
perior, and from St. Paul, on the Missis- 
sippi, across -the Red River at 
.cargo to the Missouri at Bismarck, 

and from Kalama, on the Columbia River, to Ta- 
coma, on Puget Sound. It had earned 10,000 000 
acres of its land grant. It had surveyed its route 
across the continent. It had established a score 
of cities, and had sent out thousands of settlers 
But the financial resources of Mr. Cooke had been 
-drained, and the war in Europe dissipated his 
scheme of a Rothschild connection. He and his 
bonds were a dead weight on the market at 12 
cents. 


Then, in 1874, George W. Cass became president. 
He contrived to give his name to this, the richest 
of Dakota counties, and to give his railroad into 
the hands of a receiver. Thence it was rescued 
by a committee of its bondholders, chief among 
whom was William Windom, and Charles B 
Wright was intrusted with the task of reviving 
the fallen enterprise. He did a good deal toward 
paving the way for a greater man, and he might 
have done much more but for his physical in- 
firmities. He ran trains at all events, sold large 
areas of the earned lands, and put a live, earnest 
population at work growing wheat, whose profit- 
able labors attracted Congress’s attention, and 
enabled his successor, Frederick Billings, in 1880 
to throw westward another hundred miles of 
track. And then came the era of Henry Villard, 
the famous blind pool, triumph and prosperity. 

Mr. Villard in 1875 became interested in the 
budding railroad enterprises of Oregon, and he 
soon became president of the consolidated trans- 
portation companies of Oregon and Washington. 
He and Mr. Billings got along very well at first 
and made a traffic arrangement, but when Mr. 
Billngs began to plan the pushing of his road into 
Mi-. Villard’s territory they clashed, and the weak- 
er man went under. Mr. Villard conceived the 
idea, unique in its proport o-s of s curing $9,000,- 
000 from friends, who should know nothing of 
what he was about, and, with it, of buying up a 
controlling interest in Northern Pacific stock in 
open market. He goi, the money. He gave no 
receipts. He took no One into his confidence, but 
he, or somebody else, began to tell sad stories of 
Northern Pacific decrepitude, and when its stock 
had fallen to a proper ebb he quietly bought it 
fn. and one fine morning he called on Mr. Billings, 
asked him how he did, and informed him that the 
stockholders were dissatisfied with his manage- 
ment and would thank him to resign. Mr. 
Billings made a virtue of necessity. He parted 
with his stock and got out. In two more years 
the remaining 800 miles of railroad were complet- I 


ed, and the company has from that day grown in 
prosperity and usefulness. It was not materially 
injured by the ten. reversal of Mr. Villard’s 

fortunes a few ye nee, and he has now re- 
covered Iris hold r it. it runs daily trains 

from bt. Paul to tt coast, over 2,0u0 miles of 
rail. 

The fortunes of Lis railroad enterprise have 
had a great influence upon Fargo and the Red 
River Valley, and in this respect more than in all 
others, that they made the great bonanza farms 
ol North Dakota a possibility. These wonderful in- 
stitutions exist nowhere except along the line of the 
Northern Pacific, because such immense tracts of 
country can nowhere else be acquired. They ex- 
ist in their finest form here around Fargo, because 
here, in the Red River Valley, is the soil most 
favorable to the growth of wheat. Under the Gov- 
ernment laws no individual can acquire more than 
160, or, under certain conditions, 320 acres of 
ground. The talk one hears from political dema- 
gogues in the East about rich men getting vast 
areas of the public lands and holding them for 
speculation is mostly nonsense. Many frauds have 
been attempted, and some have been perpetrated, 
but to no considerable extent. When Jay Cooke 
collapsed, however, the opportunity to get hold of 
immense areas of land presented itself to those who 
had bought the railroad’s bonds, and they were 
quick to improve it as the only way of getting 
their money back. The bonds were worth from 
twelve to twenty cents, at various times, and were 
exchangeable at par for the company’s lands. Sev- 
eral of the bond-owners who saw into the future 
wisely forgave the company’s debt and took in ex- 
change from 1,000 to 30,000 acres of land. This 
whole Western country, as I have explained, is 
laid out into sections each of thirty-six square 
miles. The Northern Pacific land-grant comprises 
every other section in a strip for forty miles on 
cither side of the track. It was thus made possible 
to buy a large farm profitably, either at the rail- 
road price or through the exchange of the rail- 
road’s securities. One Northern Pacific investor 
who thought himself completely ruined by Jay 
Cooke’s failure took land for his bonds, and to- 
day possesses the largest farm on the earth’s sur- 
face, with 20,000 acres under cultivation, and 
yielding him a princely income every year. 

The bonanza farms— there are eight of them, 
varying in size from 2,000 to 30,000 acres— are 
conducted upon the most careful business princi- 
ples. They require a large capital, and no manu- 
facturing or mercantile institution in the East is 
governed by more exact or rigorous rules. Tlio 
finest and latest appliances are used in their opera- 
tion. The land, being perfectly level and contain- 
ing neither stones nor trees to impede cultivation, 
can be worked with great rapidity and upon a 
large scale. It is an interesting process by which 
the soil is first brought into subjection. Spon 
after the grass has started in the spring the prairie 
sod is ploughed to a depth of about two inches, a 
process called “ breaking.” The grass roots 
quickly die in the sun. and during July the same 
sod is turned over again with about one inch of 
dirt covering it. This is called ” back-setting. 
Nothing further is done until the following spring, 
when the ground is deeply ploughed and harrowed 
and sown to wheat, which is cropped in the usual 
manner. Seeding begins in tbis district about t be 
1st of April. The brealdng of new soil occupies 
the latter part of May. ITay is cut after the 
Fourth of July. Backsetting begins about the 
25th of the same month. Oats are harvested about 
August, 1 0. and wheat ten or twelve days later. 

As many as ten or fifteen crews of men are at 
work on the bonanza farms, each under a different 
foreman, who is himself controlled by a super- 
intendent. Press drills run by six horses do their 
seeding. They sow two acres for each mile they 
are drawn. The farm is divided into fields, each 
of one square mile, and the work performed is 
measured in miles. A strip of land one mile 
long and eight feet three inches broad is an 
acre, and all machines, whether for ploughing. 


26 


NEW EMPIRES IN TIIE NORTHWEST. 


harrowing, seeding, cutting or binding, are worked 
in echelon, so as to make the greatest possible 
number of miles in a day. It is usual to put 100 
horses, with the complement of men to run them, 
in each field. The field-foremen go about on 
horseback, watching every foot of ground, and per- 
mitting no deviation, however slight, from the 
rules of the establishment. It is a great sight, and 
brings to one's mind a powerful impression of the 
advantages of method and business principles in 
agricultural work. 

No part of the profit to be derived from the 
production of their grain escapes these bonanza 
farmers. They take it all up to the moment of 
shipment. They have their own thrashing outfits— 
their separators, callable of thrashing 2,000 or 
3,000 bushels per day; their engines, their swing- 
ing stackers for stocking the straw as it comes 
away, from ten to twenty bundle teams, and from 
five to ten grain teams. They do not sack the 
grain, but lift it at once into bulk wagons, hold- 
ing 100 bushels, and draw it to their enormous 
elevators, or direct to the cars lor shipment. 
Laborers in the West are migratory. They come 
and go with the birds. In the winter many of 
them work in the timber regions of Wisconsin and 
Minnesota, and others, the harvesters especially, 
begin work in the South and work northward 
with the ripening crop. Their wages vary largely 
with the season and the region. Winter labor is 
paid at from $12 to $20 a month and board. 
Seeding men can make $1 25 a day and board, 
while harvesters are paid all the way from $1 50 
to $1 a day and board, according to the degree 
of their expertness. Some are employed by the 
season at from $20 to $25 a month and board, the 
season beginning as soon as the frost goes out of 
the ground and ending with the final plough- 
ing, which is done after the crop is gathered. 
Every farm keeps a store-house, from which the 
men are supplied with all such goods as clothing, 
shoes, tobacco and medicines. 

Not only is the wheat of this valley the best 
in the world, but it is produced at less expense 
tnan anywhere else. The average cost of the crop 
per acre is about $7, and on the bonanza farms 
it is even less. A fair table of expenses would be : 
Rent of ground, $1 ; seed, $1 ; ploughing, $1 25 ; 
dragging, 20 cents; seeding, 25 cents; harvesting, 

Jthreshing and marketing, $2; total expense, 
$6 (0 per acre. As many as thirty bushels have 
been gleaned from a single acre, but the average 
crop is not more than fifteen, which would make 
the expense per bushel just 45 cents. The lowest 
price at which this No. 1 hard wheat, the Duluth 
wheat, as it is called in New-York, has sold is 
4 9 cents. The highest is $1 35, but the average 
price the year around is 80 cents. Several of the 
bonanza farms have 10,000 acres sown this spring 
Their net earnings cannot be less than $50,000. 

It scarcely needs to be said, wnen these facts 
are considered, that Fargo, from which at least 
half the crop of the valley is shipped, presents 
the appearance of a comfortable, thriving town. 
It contains 8,500 people. Its banks, with a 
capital of $1,500,000 and deposits of a million 
more, write ten millions of exchange annually. 
Ihe receipts of its railroads are not less than 
$2,500,000 a year, a fact which speaks elo- 
quently of the business done within 
the city. No less than eighteen agri- 
cultural warehouses make it their headquarters, 
supplying the country west of them with farming 
machinery to the extent of five millions a year. 
Its buildings are substantial, and its homes are 
rapidly taking on those little, but significant 
appearances that tell of comfort, refinement and 
prosperity. It contains an editor who supplies 
the State with more politics than a Tammany 
boss ever heard of. and as choice a collection 
of good fellows on the one hand and Mugwumps 
on the other as the most catholic taste could 
call for. In other words, Fargo is a city with 
all that that implies. Its population is more 
evenly divided as to sex than is usually the 
case in Western towns, though women are plenti- 
ful in Dakota, and a cultivated society of edu- 


cated and refined men and women is every- 
where to be found. In this respect Dakota is 
not nearly so crude as is the Eastern idea of it. 
Its people are not the rag-tog, tough, or 
impoverished element that went w r est in the early 
days because the East had no room for them , but 
their minds and their stomachs, too, are quite 
capable of nice discrimination. 

In this section there is a large foreign element, 
mostly Scandinavians, who constitute the labor- 
ing class. They are industrious, but none too 
moral and altogether devoid of sentiment. Scan- 
dinavian girls are employed in the hotel dining- 
rooms all through Dakota, as waitresses, wdiere 
they seem to do pretty much everything else 
except wait. They are artists at rattling the 
dishes and possess a positive genius for spilling 
the soup in your lap, and then, when you look 
up furiously, the sweet-tempered way they have 
of smiling 'and ot saying, “Yell, pardons; Aye 
no sporka mooch Anglish,” is altogether distress- 
ing. That phrase, “ Aye no sporka mooch Ang- 
lish” is the eternal apology. Ask a servant why 
she doesn’t bring your dinner, why she doesn’t 
fix up your room, why she persists in keeping 
a draught blowing on you, why anything, and 
the always grins and says she can’t “ sporka 
mooch Anglish.” 

The bonanza farmers employ Scandinavian 
laborers largely, and many amusing stories are 
told illustrating their characteristics and propensi- 
ties. They have a dialect best described, perhaps, 
as a combination of German and Scotch. The accent 
is decidedly German. Their favorite vowel sound 
is that of the long “ a,” which takes the place of 
both “ e” and “ i.” For instance, the pronoun 
“ I” is pronounced “ aye,” and “ he” is converted 
into “ hay.” They make no distinction as to sex, 
but say, “ May voomam’s bay hard seek,” mean- 
ing, “ My woman, she is hard sick.” “ Aye no 
sporka mooch Anglish ” is an apology that serves 
in all emergencies. 

Many of the Scandinavians who work ita the 
harvest fields of this valley spend their winters 
among the pineries of Wisconsin, following the 
logs in the spring down the river. One of them, 
an Olsen, sought a job last summer on the Still- 
water boom. A boom, lest you should be un- 
familiar with this use of the word, is that spot 
in the river where the logs, having floated down 
from the pine forests, are sorted and sent onward 
to their respective owners. Olsen was asked if he 
could handle the logs. 

“ Aye Rank so,” he replied. “ Aye vark me 
blenty times on de Farks ofer en Visconsin, an’ 
Aye Rank Aye can yust vark any mams ofer de 
middle.” 

The foreman accepted him at his own estimate 
and put him at work, but in an hour or two he 
reappeared. 

“ Maaster Poss,” he said, “ Aye Rank Aye haf 
to get nudder mans. Aye got hale pig log in 
de vater, an’ Aye Rank Aye no make him go.” 

“ AIT right; you can have help. Do you know 
Johnson ?” 

“ Yah, Aye know Yonkson. Yohnson blenty 
goot mans.” 

He got Johnson, but in another hour he again 
returned, as sluggish and bloodless as ever. 

“ Maaster Poss, Aye Rank Aye vants ’nudder 
mans,” he said. “ Yohnson hay quit.” 

“ Johnson has quit!” 

“ Yah, Aye claim Yohnson hay quit.” 

“ What was the matter with him ? Didn’t he 
like his job ?” 

“ Veil, Aye Rank hay like yob.” 

“ Wasn’t he getting enough wages ?” 

“ Veil, Aye Rank hay got him blenty monies, 
but, yu6t same, Aye claim hay quit.” 

“ Come, now, speak up. What made Johnson 
quit?” 

“ Yell, hay say noddinks.” 

“ Did you have a quarrel ?” 

“ Veil, Aye Rank Aye dunno.” 

“ You think you don’t know?” 


NORTH DAKOTA. 


27 


“ Veil, Aye t’ank no quarrels. Hay say nod- 
dihks, l>ut yust quit.” 

“ Tell me how it happened, Olsen. Now, out 
with it!” 

“ Veil, Maaster Poss, it vas yust like dis. Ve 
got hale pig log. Yohnson vant er make him go 
oier by de vater. Veil, Yohnson got him crow- 
bar bay de log, und hay got him crowbar bay hees 
shoulter, und hay yust heave, und heave, und 
heave. Veil, den, de log hay gone ofer, und ven 
de log hay goue oler py de vater, Yohnson hay 
lose liees legs and hay go ofer py de vater, too. 
Ven Yohnson hay go py de vater, de log hay go py 
Yohnson.” 

“ Well, what did you do? Didn’t vou jump in 
and save him ? You surely didn’t let the man 
drown ?” 

“ Ah, veil. Arc no sporka mooch Angl'sh ” 

‘•You fool! Y’ou don’t need to speak English 
to save a man from drowning! What did you 
do ?” 

“ Aye yust vait py me oar, und vatch vere Yohn- 
son hay go py de log. Hay no coom back. VelL 
Maaster Poss, Aye t’ank ve need ’nudder mans. 
Aye no sporka mooch Anglish, but Aye claim Yohn- 
son hay quit!” L. E. Q. 


xn. 


THE CITY OF GRAND FORKS. 


ITS EARLY SETTLEMENT AND STEADY 
GROWTH. 


A DISTRIBUTING POINT FOR ALL NORTHEAST- 
ERN DAKOTA— LAND THAT IS STILL 
OPEN TO NEWCOMERS. 

Grand Forks, North Dakota, May 9. 

This is ancient ground. Young men and 
maidens are now coming of age who were actually 
born here. It was in the remote year of 1879 
that the first settler built his “ shack” on the high- 
est bank above the Red River. Not an acre of 
ground in all of North Dakota, except a garden 
patch or two at Pembina, directly north of him, 
was under cultivation. There, too, was his near- 
est white neighbor, ninety miles distant. Win- 
nipeg, then called Fort Garry, and a part of the 
Selkirk settlement, was a flourishing little village, 
and there were several other half-breed trading 
posts in Manitoba. How to open communications 
with these people, how to supply them with pro- 
visions from St. Paul and receive their furs for 
the markets of the East, formed the problem which 
the earliest settler of Grand Forks came here to 
solve. He knew he had a fortune in his hands if 
he could but get a line of steamboats plying up 
and down the Red River. There were a great 
many people in Manitoba drawing all they lived on 
from Fort Garry. Some were white, but the 
greater part were half-breeds, in the service of 
the Hudson’s Bay Company. They were then re- 
ceiving their provisions from the East by way of 
the Bay, and they were able to communicate with 
their points of supply just once a year. They sent 
their orders in the spring and received the'r goods 
in the fall. The going and the coming of their 
dog trains were the two annual events for which 
they lived. 

The first settler at Grand Forks lost no time 
getting his steamboat on the water. While he was 
building, a village sprang up around him and a 
postoffice was established. Its first official head 
was a woman. The mail always came in, brought 


by a dog-cart, on Monday, which was washday. 
It was brought in a cigar-box, and it was a sight 
to see the old lady wipe the suds from her arms 
and hands, hunt around for her spectacles, and 
then open her cigar-box and solemnly read the 
addresses aloud to the assembled settlement. The 
Indian title to the Red River Valley was not ex- 
tinguished at this time, and the ground was still 
red with the blood of braves, who were consider- 
ately paving the way for the peaceful use of the 
land by putting each other out of existence. The 
Red River Valley was the perennial battle-field 
between the Sioux of Dakota, and the Chippewas 
of Minnesota. Once, when the Sioux were the 
Dacotahs and the Chippewas were the Ojibways, a 
misunderstanding arose between a giddy young 
married woman of the Ojibway tribe and her hus- 
band concerning the too ardent attentions paid 
her by a fascinating young Dacotah chieftain. 
It was the familiar story. Some said it was her 
fault and some said it was his, but it caused a 
great deal of disagreeable feeling, and at last the 
indignant husband took his tomahawk and lifted 
the Dacotah dude’s hair. That brought on a war, 
which, after progressing finely for about 200 
years, was ended only when the United States 
shut both sides within their respective reserva- 
tions and converted noble warriors into gluttons 
and thieves. 

On the spot where this early settlement was 
made stands what is now the second city of North 
Dakota, a busy, wealthy town. The census, if it 
hurries, will give Grand Forks at least 7,090 in- 
habitants, but more than sixty new houses are no w 
being erected, and the accretion is as steady as 
time. Enterprise has never worked more rapidly, 
nor with more care and wisdom, than here. There 
is a substantial reason for the growth of the town. 
Of course, it has all come since the railroads came. 
So long as people had to depend on river transpor- 
tation, though they multiplied sufficiently to in- 
crease shipments from 140 tons in 1871 to 8,000 
in 1875, there were not so many inducements for 
settlement in the country around Grand Forks 
as were offered elsewhere. The character of tlie,e 
Western towns depends wholly on the character 
of the country districts tributary to them. Peo- 
ple in the East are often heard to wonder how it 
is possible for a population of 7,000 to do the 
business which Grand Forks, for instance, is doing 
year by year. They wonder how so many rail- 
roads can profitably run through such small com- 
munities. They wonder how such a population 
can support three or four national banks, anAJjow 
the banks can possibly write eight or ten millions 
of exchange. They wonder how wholesale houses 
can exist, and where retail merchants find the 
trade that renders it profitable to carry lines of 
stock varying in value from 8100,000 to $200,- 
000. They trill find an answer to all these ques- 
tions in the simple statement that Grand Forks 
draws at least $20,000 a day from the country 
region around it. It is the distributing point for 
a territory embracing more than a hundred smaller 
towns. Its business is contributed by an army 
of industrious farmers, who spend as they make, 
and whose growing prosperity necessarily builds 
up Grand Forks. 

Not all the land in the Grand Forks district is 
taken, but it is rapidly going, and within two 
years more free homes in the Red River Valley will 
be out of reach. During the year 1888 entries 
were made to the number of 1,952, upon 31 3, 000 
acres. The Grand Forks district occupies t.iie 
northeast corner of the Territory, and is about 
100 miles square. As many as twenty townships 
—a township is a block of land containing thirty- 
six sections, or square miles— are still unsur- 
veyed. There ate also about 150,000 acres of va a it 
surveyed lands open to settlement, making in all 
about 650,000 acres now available in this district.. 
Some of it, of course, is inferior— that is, inferior 
to the wonderful soil bordering directly on the 
river, but if a Vermont farmer were to wake up 
some fine morning and find his farm transformed 


28 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


into the meanest quarter-section to be found ja 
this whole region, 4 fancy he would think himself 
uncommonly well off. Them are valiey lands still 
idle and unclaimed, and if actual results are to 
be believed, a more fruitful soil does not exist on 
the face ol the earth than is now to be had right 
here for the asking. The Oklahoma craze seems 
all the more ridiculous when the fact is taken into 
consideration that twenty millions ol acres are at 
this moment subject to entry in a State which pro- 
duces one-thirtieth of the world’s wheat crop. 
Dakota’s growth of wheat in 1887 was 62,500,000 
bushels, of which North Dakota supplied 36,- 
000,000, with only one-nineteenth of her soil at 
work. This North Dakota wheat, every grain ot 
ik is the famous “ No. 1 hard.” It brings the 
highest price paid for wheat, and is here grown at 
a smaller expense than anywhere else. The land 
yet open is as fertile as land could be. It is near 
the railroads, and affords the settler every possi- 
ble advantage that, can be obtained in a new coun- 
try, and yet there are those crazy people down in 
Oklahoma ready to cut each other’s throats over 
land which, however good, can be no better than 
the best. 

Much of the overflow from Oklahoma has al- 
ready come here. Hundreds of entries were made 
last week in the land ollices of North Dakota, aqd 
as I have now reached the territory where public 
lands are at the service of new settlers, I may as 
well take this opportunity of describing the pro- 
cesses by which they are obtained. Any citizen 
of the United States, or person who has declared 
his intention of becoming a citizen, may enter upon 
any unoccupied or Unreserved quarter-section 
(1 60 acres) of the public domain, and within thirty 
days alter settlement he must file his “ declaratory 
statement” with the nearest Government land 
oflice. In this statement he simply declares his 
intention to cultivate and live upon the land he 
has taken. Within a year he must prove by -wit- 
nesses that he has actually been cultivating and 
living upon his land, and then he can have a 
patent of it from the Government for $1 25 an 
acre, or, if it be within fifty miles of the Northern 
Pacific Railroad, for $? 50 an acre. This is called 
“ pre-emption.” Under the Homestead law, he 
can have a quarter-section free, or, to be exact, by 
paying the land oflice fee of from $14 to $18. But 
be must go upon his land within six months after 
entry and live there. He must cultivate it for 
five years, and then be can have his patent. But 
he has no right or claim in tire land until the neces- 
sary cultivation has been done. He can buy it 
under the pre-emption law, if he chooses, so soon 
as the conditions of that law have been observed. 
If he be an honorablv discharged soldier or sailor 
who has served not less than ninety days, or the 
widow of one, the time of actual service under the 
Government will be deducted from the requisite 
five years of residence. Under the Timber Culture 
Act,' he may secure a quarter-section of such land 
as is naturally devoid of timber, which includes 
practically the whole of Dakota, by planting and 
cultivating ten acres of trees for eight years, and 
when lie “ proves up” he must show that he has 
planted and eared for 2,700 trees, of which at least 
675 are living and in good condition. 

If people contemplating settlement here have 
any money it is undoubtedly wise to look around 
a little before they make their final choice of a 
home. It is the universal experience in new 
countries that the first settlers are not the real 
settlers. The pioneers do not stay. They are 
usually of two classes, ne’er-do-wells and adventur- 
ers. They have failed everywhere else, and they 
fail here. They take a homestead, break a little 
ground, mortgage their property to buy stock, 
have a poor crop, fail, get disgusted, and “ light 
out,” leaving the banking or loan company from 
which they havo received financial assistance 
to gather in the property in payment of their 
debt, ' Dakota could give half a million farmers 
200 acres each, upon which a population of 

3,000,000 could happily subsist, leaving plenty 


of room for cities. As a matter of fact, the 

62.000. 000 bushels of wheat raised in 1887 came 
from less than 70,000 farms, and less than half 
of these were in crop. In other words, less than 

5.000. 000 acres, out of 96,000,000, did the work. 
These figures are eloquent if you will regard 
them for but a minute. They show how vast 
the room is out here, and how slightly it is 
occupied even yet. In South Dakota, where all 
the land is taken and in private ownership, not 
20 per cent of it is in actual use. It is often 
cheaper to take one of these farms where the 
ground has been broken to some extent than 
it is to settle on wild land and spend a year’s 
time rendering it receptive. Farms such as 
I have described, upon which some work has 
been done, and from which one or two crops 
have been taken, but whose tenants were for 
one reason or another, a reason, however, peculiar 
to themselves, incompetent and shiftless are to 
be had in every county in both Dakotas at from 
S4 to $10 an acre. 

Back from the Red River a mile or so the 
prairie slopes downward forming a valley perhaps 
twenty miles wide and 200 long, which 
is nearly a foot lower than the river bank. 
The years 1881 and 1882 are known out here 
as “ boom times,” immigration during those years 
being particularly heavy. Settlers poured into 
this valley, but before they had done more than 
break the ground, trouble came. The winter 
of ’83 was long and cold, and the river made 
three feet of ice. I am talking now of the 
northern half of the world, where the water 
flows north and seeks its escape into Hudson’s 
Bay, the Northern Pacific and the Arctic. The 
Red River flows into Lake Winnipeg. The ice 
down here began to melt while it was still solid 
in the lake, and presently the river rose, over- 
flowed and submerged this valley. At that time 
there was no drainage whatever, and the newly 
arrived settlers were subjected to great 
losses. So S'<oh as soring came, they 
packed up their goods and moved further 
west, leaving many of their farms in the posses- 
sion of bankers and loan agents. Since then the 
land has been drained, and were another such 
flood to come, which is very unlikely, as the 
river banks are from six to ten feet high, it 
could do no particular harm. But hundreds of 
those farms with their improvements are still 
vacant, and at least 50,000 acres in Grand Forks 
County can be had at $5 an acre. As many as 
150,000 acres can be had at, from $6 to $10 an 
acre. If there is a more fertile spot than this 
on top of the world, it has yet to be found. 

Grand Forks is interested in another industry 
which is peculiarly its own, and which, as yet 
scarcely touched, must soon become almost the 
greatest, factor in the. city’s prosperity. The Red 
Lake River flows into the Red River at Grand 
Forks, a circumstance which gave the city its 
name, the early voyagers being, at first, at a 
loss to know which was the main stream. About 
a hundred miles due east in Minnesota is the Red 
Lake, and for miles and miles around it are dense 
pine thickets. Quick to perceive the advantage 
that these timber lands might be to them, -with 
a river in which to float the logs down and a 
vast market to the west clamoring for lumber, the 
people of Grand Forks recently sent, a survey 
party to look the groves over and t,o estimate 
the quantitv of the timber. It, is all contained 
within the Chippewa Reservation, so that nobody 
can get at it just now. Such sections of it as are 
outside the reservation boundaries have already 
been gobbled up by a lumber dealer who is now 
operating an immense mill at Grand Forks, and 
whose sales last year to the territory west of him 
amounted to ten million feet. At present he is 
enjoying a delightful monopoly, but a commission 
is treating with the Indians for the opening of 
the timber lands, and before this year closes the 
lands will undoubtedly be available. It is esti- 
mated that there are about ten billion feet of 


NORTH DAKOTA. 


29 


pine, oak, ash and elm, from 50 to 150 feet high, 
within the timber belt, and the topography of the 
country is such that there can be no possible 
outlet for the trees except down the Red .Lake 
River. They must all come to Grand Forks, wluch 
will inevitably become a great lumber manu- 
facturing and distributing centre. 

Nor is there any reason, with its excellent rail- 
road facilities and its situation, why it should not 
become a great wholesaling centre, too. Sup- 
posing a triangle of which Duluth shall be the 
apex and a line drawn from Grand Forlrs to St 
Paul shall be the hypothenuse, one can see how 
fortunate is the position of Grand Forte for whole- 
sale operations. It is but 220 miles northwest 
from Duluth. It is 320 miles nearer the Pacific 
Coast, whence it would draw its sugars and 
canned goods, than is St. Paul. It makes its own 
dour now. Retail houses in the country always 
buy their goods wherever they get their sugars. 
In buying from St Paul to-day they pay freight 
from Grand Forte to St, Paul and back again, or 
on Eastern goods from Duluth, 150 miles to St 
Paul, and then up to Grand Forks, 320 miles, while 
they might save a clear 250 miles by shipping from 
the East straight through Duluth. Upon these 
conditions are built the hopes of this interesting 
town. It has an admirable climate. Its rainfall 
is plentiful and certain. Its people push and shove 
with all the energy characteristic of the West, it 
has schools and colleges in ample sufficiency, and 
all it needs is population. L. L. y. 


XIII. 


A SPORTSMAN’S PARADISE. 


ON THE BORDER LINE OF THE DOMINION. 


PEMBINA SIXTY YEAPvS AGO AND NOW— THE ODD 
HUDSON BAY COMPANY SETTLEMENT— 

Pembina, N orth Dakota, May 1 8. 

After visiting so many places destined to 
become the “ grand metropolises' of the North- 
west, one experiences a certain sense of relief 
in coming to Pembina. He finds a quiet little 
town lying against the Red River on one side 
and the international boundary line on another, 
removed by its situation from all vain ambitions, 
expecting little and content with enough. M lieu 
the Scotch and English colonists of the Hudson 
Bay Company had pushed their way through 
Manitoba and had reached the spot that has 
since become known as Winnipeg, they en 
countered a party of Frenchmen under the patron- 
age of the Northwestern Fur Company, and there 
was forthwith a quarrel. Each party said the 
other was poaching on its preserves, and the 
Frenchmen, backed by Indian allies, manifested 
an exceedingly ugly spirit. At last somebody 
fired a shot, and immediately a battle began. 
It ended in the utter rout of the British, and 
they retreated up the Red River and paused in 
the neighborhood of the 49th parallel. They 
were the earliest settlers of Pembina. 

These people led any but a tranquil life. 
With the hated Frenchmen to the north of them, 
the treacherous Cree Indians all around them, 
and the fierce Sioux and Chippewas battling 
together below them, they had plenty to think 
about They were presently reinforced by Lord 


Selkirk, to whom they were originally indebted 
for all the delightful experiences they had gone- 
through in this land of promise. ‘He had ob- 
tained from the Hudson Bay Company a grant 
of all the Red River Valley, and he came out 
himself with another body of adventurers, and 
in 1812 he built a fort upon a spot perhaps 
a hundred yards from the site of Pembina’s Court 
House. The lay of the land was pretty. A long, 
deep, narrow river that has since received as 
its name the name of the town, its banks over- 
grown with poplar, oak and elm trees, flowed 
into the Red River at a short distance below 
the fort, and the surface of the country was 
lifted here into mounds and depressed there into 
ravines, which served greatly to relievo the 
monotony of the expanding prairies. When Sel- 
kirk learned two years later that his fort and 
his people were on American soil, he moved them 
across the boundary line, and established them 
where they had the right to be, but several of 
their descendants are yet living in Pembina, and 
the traditions of these early days are a source 
of pride to the whole community. 

The Pembina of to-day, however, is a town of 
recent growth, but little older, in fact, than ite 
neighbors in the Red River Valley. People are 
still accounted young who have travelled all the 
way from Winnipeg through Pembina to St. 
Paul in dog-carts, camping in the snow and cross- 
ing the river in skiffs of buffalo hide drawn to- 
gether in ten minutes and propelled by a pole, 
while boys and girls ten years old can tell you 
of Indian fights on the plains around the town 
where now the wheat is green and the pure- 
blooded Indian is as rarely to be iound as the 
bones of the buffalo, with which, even then, the 
prairies were literally strewn. 

There is nothing like Pembina in all Dakota. 
Not more than a third of its population are native 
Americans. Many are Canadians, many are half- 
breeds, many are Icelanders, and I saw one Esqui- 
mau. Not only the city, but the entire county 
of Pembina, has been overrun by Canadians. 
They have filled the county below it also, and 
still they come day after day. There are a million 
acres in Pembina County and 700,000 

of them at least are held by Cana- 

dians. They make the very best 
citizens. They have given such value to the land, 
have produced such results from it and have so 
conspicuously demonstrated its fertility, that the 
acres of this county are now the most expensive 
in all Dakota. The lowest price at which a quarter- 
section (160 acres) can be bought is $1,600, while 
there are farms in the county that cannot be ob- 
tained for a penny less than $50 an acre. There 
is no way of telling an English-speaking Canadian 
from a native-born American. They are just like 
the rest of us, and they receive from everybody 
the heartiest kind of a welcome. The half-breeds 
and Icelanders are marked. They possess inevita- 
ble peculiarities. The French half-breed is an 
Indian just touched with the fleur-de-lis. The 
Scotch half-breed is ever and foremost a Thistle, 
with a weakness for blankets and beads and moc- 
casins. There is something strange about the ef- 
fects produced by the crossing of bloods. The 
French half-breed is silent, swift, watchful, sin- 
ister and he always goes armed. The Scotch 
half-breed is slow, calculating, canny, and he hunts 
dollars with an eagerness and a persistency that 
tell their own story. But both, no matter what 
the degree of swarthiness in their complexions 
may be, have the Indian eyes, the Indian 
hair and the Indian walk. Neither is of any great 
account in such arduous labor as. the subjuga- 
tion of the wilderness calls for. They are both 
Indian enough to prefer the hunting ground to 
the ploughed field. They loaf around Pembina, 
harmless and useless, half their time, and spend 
the other half fishing in the Red River or following 
the smaller one in search of ducks and geese or 
chasing wilder and larger game over the woody 
marshes of Northern Minnesota. It is only once 


30 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


in awhile that they develop into dangerous char- 
acters, for the law reigns with a healthy and 
vigorous muscle in all Dakota, and men whose 
natural inclinations are bad keep good out of re- 
spect for the prejudices of the community. 

But in the earlier days a bad half-breed was re- 
garded with more awe than a bad Indian. The 
terrible deeds of “ Yaller Vic - ’ are still recounted 
in Pembina with bated Breath. “ Yaller Vic” was 
a composition of Winnipeg, French and Red Lake 
Chippewa, and no good was ever known to come 
from this mixture of ferocity and devilment. He 
came to an untimely end at the hands of a Buck- 
eye tenderfoot. The only man in Pembina of 
whom “ Yaller Vic” stood in fear was a storekeeper 
who had secured the services of a greenhorn clerk 
from Ohio. The merchant, soon after the ne.v 
clerk arrived, started off upon his annual trip to 
St. Paul. Before leaving he told his clerk to 
write him concerning the progress of 
some newly planted potatoes, and also 
instructed him that never, upon any 
account, should he permit “ Yaller Vic” to 
set foot inside the store. He had been in St. 
Paul about a week when he received this letter : 

“ Deer Sur: Yesterday ‘Yaller Vic’ come to the 
store an’ started fvr to walk in. Sez I, ‘Yaller 
Vic, keep out.’ Sez he, ‘ I wants to come in.’ 
Sez I, ‘It ain’t ter be did.’ Sez he, ‘I’m eomin in,’ 
an’ he come. I tuck the gun an’ kilt him. He’s 
dead. Sales is good. JOHN. 

“ P. S. them pertaties is all rite.” 

Nothing I have ever heard of more clearly il- 
lustrates the weakness of codified law than the 
legal proceedings instituted to punish the murderer 
of “ Yaller Vic.” John's lawyer showed the cor- 
oner the statute holding that the principal was 
responsible for the acts of the agent, and under 
that appropriate rule Jc.hn was discharged, and 
the coroner held his employer. But when the 
employer was arrested, he set up an alibi, and 
showed beyond question that at. the time of the 
shooting he was in St. Louis buying goods. It 
remains to this day a mystery who was legally 
responsible for the killing of “ Yaller Vic.” 

The Icelanders contribute another interesting 
portion of Pembina’s population. I doubt if there 
is another spot in America wheie you can see 
four men on the street corners talking four dif- 
ferent languages and each understanding the 
others. It is a frequent thing in Pembina to hear 
a French half-breed, a full-blooded Cree, an Ice- 
lander and an American discussing human affairs 
each in his own tongue. The Icelanders are to be 
distinguished by their round shoulders. They 
always walk as if they were cold, with theii 
shoulders drawn into a knot around their heads 
and their hands stuffed into their trousers’ pock- 
ets. Nothing could be more sheepishly tranquil 
than the expression of their staid and sober faces 
They chiefly contribute to the well-being of sc 
ciety as cooks. An Icelandic cook is described 
to be a great comfort. He doesn’t want nights 
out.. You don’t have to regulate the number of 
clothes you wear by the fear of his displeasure 
at the size of the wash, and if he isn’t all a 
** chef,” at least he isn’t all a tyrant. 

To a sportsman Pembina is a paradise. From 
year’s end to year’s end game is plentiful. He 
can begin his duck shooting in the spring, and 
can have his pick of about twenty varieties of 
wild duck that flock in immense numbers upon 
the Pembina River. The mallard duck is es- 
pecially abundant, though pintails and blue and 
gray teal are scarcely less so. There is no better 
goose shooting anvwhere than within ten or 
twenty miles of Pembina. The gray goose, 
Canada brant, and the wavy or snow goose are 
all to be found. A curious device for attracting 
the wavy geese at night is adopted by the in- 
genious hunters of this region. They obtained 
it from the Indians. They go to some spot to 
which the geese are known to resort, and there 
they build an immense fire. Presently, and al- 
most invariably, a flock of wavies will come 


and circle around the fire, falling a 
quick prey to the hunters' shotguns. Can- 
ada geese frequently hatch ui North Dakota, 
and when their eggs are put under a hen, the 
gosling may be easi ly dunosticated. Ducks and 
geese are the only wild fowl available for the 
hunter at this time of year, but it will interest 
ornithologists to know that the birds of North 
Dakota, all of which can be obtained in this 
neighborhood, are numerous and varied enough 
to stock a museum. The bald eagle is seen con- 
stantly, especially along the Pembina River and 
around Devil’s Lake. An eagle’s nest reposes in 
an immense oak tree upon a point of land jutting 
into that curious Lake, which is said to be of 
altogether wonderful dimensions. It is abandoned 
now, in deference to the Devil’s Lake small boy. 
Some of the sticks of which it is made are as big 
as a man’s leg, and an ordinary double mattress 
could easily be put into it. It completely occu- 
pies the tree, which stands up above all Hie other 
timber, throwing the nest into a position both 
picturesque and prominent. Golden and gray 
eagles, the osprey, lute and falcon are all native 
here, and specimens are found in many houses and 
in all the taxidermist establishments. The 
sandhill crane, wary and hard to get at, but ex- 
cellent to eat when taken, the white crane, the 
night heron and the bittern often appear along the 
Pembina. The largest Dakota bird is the whoop- 
ing crane, a snow-white fowl that stands about 
five feet high. Owls are here in great numbers. 
The horned owl, often two feet long with a 
spread of wing of five feet, preys on every other 
bird except the bald eagle. Snow owls and round 
heads are also plentiful. It would form a long 
catalogue to enumerate all the smaller birds pe- 
culiar to this region. They include a score of 
rare species much prized by ornithologists. 

The fishing season begins almost as soon as the 
waters open and continues almost until they close. 
Pike, pickerel, gcld-eyes and sturgeon are to be 
caught so easily that a string of sixty or seventy 
fish is often taken with a single line in a single 
afternoon. Sixty-pound sturgeon and fifty-pound 
catfish revel in the Red River to the unbounded 
delight of fishermen. The prairie chicken season 
comes on about the middle of August and endures 
until the snow flies. What are called prairie 
chickens here are really pinnated grouse. The 
mnle bird is rather handsome and very wild. 
He has wing-like feathers projecting from his 
neck. The prairie chicken, as they serve it here, is 
food for a king. Ruffed grouse, or partridges, as 
we call them in the East, are common, though not 
much sought for where chickens are so numerous. 

But the game of game, the game that dis- 
tinguishes this country above all others, East or 
West, North or South, is to be found about thirty 
miles from Pembina toward the Red Lake region. 
Here, 6till in great abundance, are moose, elk, 
caribou and deer. Several of the present residents 
of Pembina came here simply that they might be 
able the better to gratify their taste for hunting. 
They spend a month or two on the plains every 
winter, starting out with the first good snow. 
One of these devoted sportsmen, whose home is 
stocked with specimens of his prowess, has re- 
duced the hunt to a science. He goes out with » 
few selected companions in a well-built cabin, 
light in weight but tightly put together, which 
he sets on wheels. Four bronchos pull it to the 
hunting grounds, and a sufficiency of ponies, 
trained to stand under fire follow. The cabin 
is supplied with sleeping berths, kitchen utensils, 
extra tents and a little stove, and under the bottom 
such essentials as coal, oil, ammunition and guns 
are stored in separate compartments. This hunter 
has been out ten seasons, and he never fails to 
bring back a goodly load of game. Every now 
and then a W«ck bear appears, but the favorite 
game is moose. Eighteen of these noble beasts 
were shot, last winter. Several have been taken 
alive. They weigh from 800 to 1,300 pounds. 
Elk will weigh from 400 to 700 pounds, and 


NORTH DAKOTA. 


31 


reindeer from 300 to 450. The ordinary deer 
is especially beautiful. They are often found 
with a solid bunch of fat upon their 
sides. The largest band of moose seen recently 
numbered seventy-seven, but bands of from fifteen 
to thirty are met with every winter. If it were 
not for the miserable Indians, who kill them all 
summer long, they would multiply rapidly, but it 
is impossible to compel the Indians, under present 
conditions, to respect the law, and the result is a 
steady decrease of the larger game. There are 
seme specimens in Pembina that the museums of 
the country ought to possess. A moose head is 
owned here with twenty- two prongs upon his 
lordly antlers. 

In Pembina County the yield of whrat is re- 
markably large, a circumstance due as well to its 
settled condition and to the industrious character 
of the Canadian farmers as to quality of the soil. 
Thirty bushels to the acre is the average crop. In 
1880 wheat was brought here for bread, and in 
1887 over 5,000,000 bushels were shipped out at. 
about $1 per bushel. The assessed value of 
property in 1880 was but $250,000; now it is 
more than $4,000,000, and its real value is 
twice that. The climate, of course, is cold, but 
it is not the temperature of which complaint is 
made so much as the length of the cold season. 
Mrs. Custer hit it perfectly when she described the 
climate as nine months winter and three months 
late in the fall. The late-in-the-fall part of it. 
however, in the minds of many people, atones for 
all the rest. L. E. Q. 


XIV. 


THE DEVILS LAKE COUNTRY. 


HOW ITS PROGRESS WAS RETARDED BY COM- 
MISSIONER SPARKS. 


THE LAKE AND THE CITY— SOME STARTLING 

INDIAN LEGENDS— A DAKOTA SEA SERPENT. 

Devils Lake, North Dakota, May 20. 

In a recent article dealing with the political 
situation in South Dakota I spoke of the 
outrageous oppressions of Land Com- 
missioner Sparks and his officials prac- 
tised upon the settlers in that part of the Territory. 
I am aware that Sparks is no longer an issue, but 
the wanton mischief he did has not yet been re- 
paired, and its effects in North Dakota are so 
serious as to call for some special comment. All 
this country lying west of the Red River Valley 
and north of the Northern Pacific land-grant is 
new country. Its development began scarcely six 
years ago. The land ollice in Devils Lake was 
opened in 1883, and had been going only a year 
before Sparks entered upon his crusade. It is an 
enormous district, embracing nearly 10,000 square 
miles and containing about 6,000,000 acres, two- 
thirds of which are pure agricultural lands. The 
office had done a heavy business. Settlements had 
been made at the rate of ten or fifteen per day, 
and a large part of them were pre-emptions, claims 
in which the settler lives on his land for at least 
six months, cultivates at least so much of it, and 
then buys it from the Government *>t $1 25 per 


acre, upon proving that the conditions of the law 
have been complied with. 

These people claim that Sparks so held in check 
their country as to leave them to-day in point of 
development two years behind where they should 
have been and might have been. This is how he 
did it: Webster Merrifield, a young collegian 
from Vermont, came here in May, 1883, settled 
on 160 acres, and personally lived on it from May 
6 till about November 1, when what proved to be 
the last illness of his mother called him to Ver- 
mont. He had spent over $600 improving his 
claim. He had put up a little house, bought a 
little stock, dug a well, and swears he meant to 
make his farm a home. His mother died, after a 
long siege of sickness, in August, 1884. In the 
previous June Mr. Merrifield was chosen a pro- 
fessor in the newly established University of 
Dakota, at Grand Forks. When he returned to 
Dakota, after his mother’s death, ho went to the 
University, and not to his farm. Sparks held his 
patent for cancellation, on the ground that Pro- 
fessor Merrifield was “ evidently a speculator.” Of 
course he wasn’t, but what business of Sparks’s 
was it if lie had been? There is nothing in the 
laws of the United States which says that a man 
shall not speculate with his own property, if he 
wants to. The law says he shall live on the land 
for so long a time, shall cultivate such an area of 
it, and shall pay so much for it. When he has 
done that it is his, and why should he not sell it 
i f he likes ? How under the sun could the Com- 
missioner properly undertake to control its dispo- 
sition alter the settler had done all the law called 
for ? 

A young lawyer named McGee took a similar 
claim, lived on it eight months, cultivated five 
times the area required by law, at the same time 
practising his profession. He sold his claim a year 
or so later and gave his whole attention to the 
law, a large part of his business being to de- 
fend settlers against Sparks. His patent 
was attacked and “ held up,” as the phrase is, 
because — I use the agent’s own words, taken from 
bis report — there was “ no evidence that he in- 
tended to make it (the farm) his future home.” 

“ Future’’ home 1 Mr. McGee and his purchaser 
are both still minus their land. It is still await- 
ing disposition because Sparks claimed the right 
to draw conclusions as to a man’s intentions 
about where he would live in the future. Could 
anything be more idiotic ? Or more palpably 
malicious ? 

Cases just like these could be cited by the 
hundred. There are sixty-six of them still held 
up here at Devils Lake. There are as many more 
at Grand Forks. They have been pending for 
from three to four years. Thousands more were 
attempted, causing great loss and expense to the 
settlers, who had to come hundreds of miles 
with their witnesses to the proper land office, 
go through a long and barren trial and wait 
six or eight months for a decision. The only 
reason why this business did not ruin the country 
was because the Democratic Territorial land 
officers were too honest and high-minded to stand 


32 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


by it. But it mightily hurt North Dakota, and 
especially such very new parts of the country 
as this. There are still about 3,500,000 acres 
open for settlement in this district, and all of it 
is first-class wheat land. It is rapidly going. 
During April 522 settlers entered upon 83,000 
acres. It cannot be too strongly impressed upon 
the minds of people who think of coming West 
that the time to come is now, and that “ free 
homes” and the “ public domain” are phrases 
that will soon cease to possess significance. It 
is easy enough to learn all any one would wish 
to irnow about Devils Lake or any other Western 
town. All have local organizations of their live- 
liest business men, usually termed a Board of 
Trade, which make the supplying of facts and 
figures a business. Investigations into what 
these associations say usually show that they 
speak well within tho limits of accuracy, and 
that their claims are matters of absolute history. 
They esteem no trouble too serious that results 
in giving new and desirable settlers. 

The city of Devils Lake sits upon an arm 
of the curious body of water from which it has 
taken its name. When the great railroad pro- 
prietor whom everybody in the Northwest fondly 
calls “ Jim” Hill came along in 1882 to see what 
the country looked like, a single log shanty was 
all he saw at Devils Lake. Tlis railroad came 
along in another year, and a city had meanwhile 
arisen to meet it. Now there are 2,0Q0 people 
living in handsome, comfortable houses. Build- 
ing improvements to the amount of $137,000 
were made in 1888. Though among the very 
youngest of the very young cities of North Dakota, 
Devils Lake has demonstrated lasting qualities. 
It has survived a boom, and that is a good guar- 
antee that it contains all the essential elements 
of prosperity. Its natural advantages are indeed, 
numerous. South and east and west of ft is a 
beautiful lake, fifty-five miles long, and from 
two to eight miles wide, with its shores cut 
into a hundred capes and promontories, forming 
delightful little bays and inlets. This lake is a 
never-failing source of interest to the people 
living near it. It has surprising habits, and" 
upon it and within it is a population which has 
won for it, if not the confidence, at least the re- 
spectful consideration, of everybody. It is any but 
a useless lake, for all around is a heavy growth of 
timber, a godsend to all prairie countries. It sup- 
plies the fish market, too, and its influence upon 
the general rainfall must be great. Like all the 
waters in this country, it has been contracted to 
its present proportions from others far greater. 
It used to extend beyond its present shores over 
three successive “ benches,” or steps, plainly de- 
fined upon the prairie, to the distant bluffs beyond, 
its original shores. In those days, which were many 
whiles ago, it undoubtedly possessed an outlet into 
the Red River. Now it is held within the tight clasp 
of the land, and its waters are as salt and as blue 
as those of the ocean. Within the groves of oak 
and elm that line its sandy and pebbly shores are 
many quaint and picturesque situations, soon to 
become summer resorts for practically the whole 
of North Dakota. 

As a market for wheat the city is fast realizing 
its destiny, but it is also becoming a great market 
for cattle. Beyond the Mouse River, a hundred miles 
away, immense cattle ranges exist. The land in 
that country is peculiarly adapted to the accom- 
modation of cattle, and many thousands are al- 
ready being herded in the valley. A vast denosit 
of lignite coal in the Turtle Mountains simplifies 
the problem and reduces the expense of livino- j n 
Devils Lake, greatly to the dissatisfaction of" the 
aforesaid Sparks, one of whose most hurtful acts 
was the withholding of this Turtle Mountain region 
from settlement and development. Deaf to°tbo 
argument that the enormous timber tracts and 
coal mines of this mountain country were abso- 
lutely necessary to the comfort and prosperity of 
the people, Sparks shut it up and drove away the 


settlers who had come upon it to the'ir loss and to 
the loss of the State, ills action was afterward 
overruled by Secretary Lamar, as his actions usu- 
ally were after they had done the injuries they 
were intended to do. Ten thousand families are 
now supplied from these mines with all the coal 
they use, and the timber on the mountains is fast 
being turned into building materials. 

You must have been asking, Why Devils Lake ? 
The truth is, there’s a sea serpent in it. There’s a 
phantom ship on it, and there are supernatural 
lights all around it. The Indians knew of these 
things long before the whites came here, and they 
named it M.innewaukon, that is, “ Spirit Waters.” 
To this day no red man will ever venture on the 
Spirit Waters in a boat. When the lake is frozen 
hard and tight, and the evil spirit is shut under 
the ice, he 1 x 111 cross it. in numbers, but, rapacious- 
as he is, no money, no bauble, not even whiskey, 
could tempt him on it in a boat. There is an 
Indian reservation on the south side of the lake 
at Fort Totten, where 1,500 Sioux are corralled. 
They have no canoes. At the fort I made the 
acquaintance of an aged squaw, who will talk 
English for pic. She knows all the legends of the 
lake, and as long as you prod her with pie she 
will croon on and on. Shut off the pie, and 
straightway she shuts off the romance. “ They 
say that in her prime, ere the pruning-knife of 
time” had dug into her cheeks and cut trails all 
over her withered body, most of which, when I 
saw her, the day being warm, was clothed with 
the zephyrs only— they say she was a cunning lit- 
tle thing, as playful as a fawn, and just as slender 
and graceful. They say her name was Tickle 
Toe- 

Under a tree near the agency buildings I led the 
now faded Tickle Toe. She carried the 
arm chair for me to sit in. I car- 
ried six pies for her to eat, carefully 
cut into quarters. She sat tailor-fashion ou the 
ground, grabbed a 6lice of pie and as it dis- 
appeared beyond her huge, toothless jaws, she 
toid me the wild, weird tales of the Minnewaukon. 
When she was a papoose, she said, the Sioux 
came east from the Missouri, the Muddy Water, 
to make war on the Chippewas. At about the 
same time the Chippewas came west from the 
Lake country to make war on the Sioux. The 
scouts of each party ascertained that the other 
party was advancing, though neither fancied the 
other knew that fact. They drew near each other 
in the vicinity of Devil s Lake, the Sioux on the 
south side, the Chippewas on the north. One 
night and at the same moment each party 
embarked in canoes, intending to cross the lake 
and surprise the other. They came together in 
the middle and the battle began. While it 
was at its fiercest, a great column of white light 
appeared over a little round mound a hundred 
yards or so from the shore on the south side. 
It was a wonderful illumination, and it made 
the lake as light as it ever was in the daytime. 
Terrified and amazed, the braves of both parties 
threw their weapons into the water and bowed 
down in worship of the light. The squaws, old 
men ancT children of both parties, attracted by 
the wonderful light, had come down to the shores 
of the lake and were gazing in dread and con- 
fusion at the strange appearance. Suddenly a 
hoarse, trumpeting sound was heard in the distance 
like the beating of many tom-toms. The mound 
over which the light was still shining began to 
throb like the heart of an angry brave. Peer- 
ing down the lake they all saw a huge monster 
advancing through the water by great leaps,' 
bis red jaws opened wider than the teepee’s 
flap, his eyes throwing out sparks, and his 
tremendous tail lashing the water into a foam 
like tho foam at the foot of the great falls of 
the Muddy Water. On, on he came, while the 
waves of the lake rose higher and higher, and 
just 

She stopped. Great Lucifer! the pies were 


NORTH DAKOTA. 


33 


gonel Not a crust remained. I plead •with her 
to continue her narrative. I called her “ Gentle 
Tickle Toe,” and ottered to write a sonnet to 
her black and silken hair, but she wouldn’t say 
a word in English. She would only gabble in 
delirious Sioux. There was not another pie on 
the reservation. 

These appearances on and about the lake have 
all been observed by white people. Mr. Palmer, 
the trader at Port Totten, saw the phantom 
vessel ten years ago. Half a dozen people were 
with him at the time and they all saw it. The 
evening was soft and balmy. They were cross- 
ing the lake in a skill and all at once some one 
called out, “ Look there 1” Coming toward them 
in an oblique line was what appeared to be a 
steamboat, its lights all glowing and the smoke 
pouring from its smoke-stack. They all knew 
there was no steamboat plying on the lake and, 
moreover, it was possible to see clear through 
this one. It was a misty, shadowy appear- 
ance. It came on, crossed their bows, and 
suddenly faded away. They sailed ten miles 
out of their way to escape crossing the track of 
the phantom. Mr. Palme? has also seen the 
sea serpent, with which he had an adventure 
that quite eclipses any sea-serpent experience on 
record. An account of the affair was printed in 
a local paper at the time and may be accepted 
as authentic. It was in the winter, and Mr. 
Palmer was crossing the lake on the ice, in his 
sleigh drawn by a pair of ponies. Suddenly the 
ice broke, and he found himself floating in open 
water. While speculating how he might direet 
the course of his private iceberg, he ibserved 
an odious-looking head rearing itself above the 
water. Its little black eyes were fixed on him. 
He drew a knife, his only weapon, from his 
Scandinavian sock and as the serpent plunged'' at 
him he boldly struck out. The knife hit a head 
as hard as flint, but it un qu es ti onajblw}. saved the 
owner’s life. The serpent’s fangs, \ifhed at Mr. 
Palmer’s throat, were diverted and only caught 
the collar of his buffalo overcoat. TheA" followed 
a hand-to-hand struggle with the monster. Luck- 
ily, the ice-floe drifted into shallow water, and 
the serpent found himself at a disadvantage. 
He endeavored to back water, a movement which 
Mr. Palmer utilized by making a quick turn of 
his body and sliding out of his overcoat. The 
serpent had the coat and has it yet for all that 
is known to the contrary, but he was where he 
could not pursue his malicious design on Mr. 
Palmer’s life. The Devils Lake serpent draws 
about six feet of water and they had reached 
part of the north bay, where the bottom lay 
but four feet below them. To this happy fortune 
the valiant trader owes his life. The serpent 
withdrew into the depths beyond, and in a few 
moments more Mr. Palmer, his ponies, his horses 
and his sleigh had floated ashore. Marvellous 
to relate, when he reached dry land and turned 
around, to look back upon the scene of his peril- 
ous adventure, he found that the lake was again 
frozen over. The ice was solid everywhere, and 
not even a sign of an opening could be de- 
tected. 

A steamboat is now running on the lake, mak- 
ing daily trips between the city and the fort. 
Its captain has on three separate occasions wit- 
nessed the white light that the Indians saw. He 
and Major Cramsey, the Indian agent, saw it 
clearly on Wednesday, May 15, the day before 
I crossed with Him. It appeared just over the 
prairie about 100 yards from shore. It was a 
high column of white light and it made the day- 
light dim. The captain has also seen the phantom 
ship, but he has not yet run across the sea serpent. 
He is evidently a little jealous of Mr. Palmer in 
this particular, and has his heart set on an 
experience with the serpent. Th" general impres- 
sion seems to be that he will sooner or later get 
what he wants. 

L. E. Q. 


XV. 


UNERRING SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 


JAMESTOWN AND ITS FLUCTUATIONS OF 
FORTUNE. 


THE NORTHERN PACIFIC AS A PIONEER— LAND 

speculation — Dakota’s educa- 
tional SYSTEM. 

Jamestown, North Dakota, May 23. 

North Dakotan cities differ from each other in 
social and physical conditions as widely as they 
differ from the cities of the South. Jamestown, or 
Jimtown, as you are permitted to call it so 
soon as you have established yourself on good 
terms with it, is as unlike Fargo as Fargo is 
unlike Sioux Falls. All the Southern cities share 
common appearances, but in the North, each looks 
as if it were started under circumstances peculiar 
to itself. Jamestown more nearly resembles an 
Eastern village than any other place I have seen. 
There are good reasons for this. Its growth has 
l>,eep slow. It has never intoxicated itself with 
that fatal poison, the boom. It has never had 
a Federal laml office or any other artificial aid 
to s\\;ell its population and stimulate its com- 
mercb. It has come along to where it is by 
gradual jjtrpce^ses, more rapid in their movement 
at sure > w ^ en everything along the 

line fft the Northern Pacific was leaping into 
fortune, but never so violent as to produce a 
violent reaction. There has been a reaction. 
Jamestown isn’t as noisy as it was four years 
ago. Property is by no means so high as it was 
then. N o perceptible growth has been made since 
1884. The people have felt the chilling influence 
of hard times. When they had their last full 
crop, the price of wheat sank below profit point. 
Then there was a drouth. Then there were losses 
by hail. Last year an August frost blighted the 
ripened grain just as it was about to be harvested. 
These troubles hurt Jamestown, as they hurt all 
North Dakota. They rendered dollars dolefully 
scarce. 

The Northern Pacific land grant made the rail- 
road possible. The railroad made population pos- 
sible. But what was thus a blessing was in 
another respect a curse. As I have already 
remarked in the course of this correspondence, the 
early settlers of an agricultural region are never 
the permanent settlers, whether a railroad or a 
prairie schooner fetched them in. This fact, true 
everywhere, was particularly and deplorably true 
along the line of this road. It introduced into 
the country, in addition to the two classes that 
always lead the van of settlement, ne’er-do-wells 
and rcughs, two other classes equally undesirable, 
speculators and tenderfoot theorists. When the 
Northern Pacific reached the Missouri, it failed, 
and its bonds sold by the pound. Those who 
held them, as it then appeared, had but one chance 
to get their money back, and that was by exchang- 


34 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


ing bonds for land, and then by selling the 
land. For thirteen cents’ worth of bonds they could 
take an even dollar’s worth of land, and in this 
way tens of thousands of acres, lying right along 
the railroad, were suddenly placed in the hands of 
men whose only object was to dispose of them as 
best they could. They rushed in all kinds of im- 
migration. They startled every poor man in the 
East with stories of the immense profits to he made 
In wheat farming. They offered all sorts of easy 
terms to purchasers. Thousands came flocking 
into the land-grant district who knew no more 
about a farm than a crow knows about a tene- 
ment-house. Speculators grabbed all the land they 
could and boomed it wildl£. For a time things 
went well. Crops prospered. The weather was sin- 
gularly benignant during the growing season. Th?re 
was plenty of rain, and everybody, tenderfeet, 
ne’er-do-wells and all, made money hand over list. 
They were sanguine at first. Now they became 
crazy. They mortgaged everything they could get 
hold of to buy land. To possess a bonanza farm 
was everybody’s dream. Property values rose to 
a ridiculous point. Everybody plunged eagerly 
into debt. Then came a drouth. The wheat crop 
failed, aDd wheat, in which there was the least ex- 
pense and greatest profit, was all anybody attempt- 
ed to raise. Then all was gone, and a considerable 
portion of them were utterly unable to resist mis- 
fortune. Many fled, disgusted. Another season 
came around, but the success that was attained 
did not enable those who had started wrong to 
get right. A third season came, and its results 
were but little better. They were good enough 
for the genuine farmers, the hard-grained fellows 
who had started in with a single yoke of oxen, a 
plough, a bag of seed and a good, earnest nerve. 
They made money every year, regardless of frost, 
hail or drouth. But it wore away all that re- 
mained of the nerve and patience of the “ gentle- 
man” farmer. He abandoned the fight, returned 
to the East, and cursed Dakota. Meanwhile, the 
bottom had been knock’d out of the “ boom” every- 
where. Real estate men were loaded to their eyes 
with property taken under foreclosure. Lots of it 
they couldn’t give away. The banks and the store- 
keepers were running the country, and they ran it 
is the main with much generosity. They have 
enabled all the farmers who are worth anything to 
tide over the dark past. 

But all over North Dakota the signs are clear of 
better times. Feelings of depression have given 
way to those of confidence and hope. The people 
know more than they did. They understand now 
that farming is a business and must be conducted 
on rigidly economical business principles'. There 
is every prospect now of a splendid crop. Rain 
has fallen all over the State plentifully, and unless 
some accident intervenes the yield of 18S9 will 
reach in the two Dakotas at least 85,000,- 
000 bushels. The people of the North have 
learned another lesson — not to depend 
wholly on their staple. They can raise 
corn, dax and barley, and they can 
grow stock readily. They are giving their at- 
tention to these diversifications of their product, 


and the result has already been felt. An idea 
exists in the East chat Dakota is /too cold and 
bleak for cattle in the winter, and that the period 
during which they must be housed and fed is 
too long to admit of profitable stock-raising. 
This notion is certainly mistaken ; on the con- 
trary, the time, season by season, during which 
stock are under cover here is shorter by a good 
deal than in Ohio or Illinois. And this is the 
reason all these natural prairie grasses that grow 
in such profusion here cure as they fall on the 

f ound. They don’t dry or wither in the least. 

saw them six weeks ago, at the end of the cold 
season, square miles of them, as full of juice and 
nutrition as the greenest grass that grows. Their 
average height, when grown to hay, is nine inches, 
but in many regions they grow io the height of 
three and four feet, and the stalk is perfectly 
brittle and as rich as a peach. Sheep and cattle 
eat it, from the highest blade to the root. The 
winter weather here is sunny and dry, with very 
little snow. It is often the case that there are 
not seven cloudy days from December to March. 
The cattle are never housed so long as they can 
get at the grass. If a deep snow comes, they are 
taken in and fed. But last winter there was 
practically no snow at all, and in many cases 
herds of cattle roamed and grazed all winter long. 
Their hair grows heavy and thick, and they do 
not in the least mind the dry cold of this climate. 
Indeed, they like it, and come into the spring 
hardy and fat. This story may be difficult to 
believe in the East, but it is the fact. North 
Dakota, agriculturally, is all right. Those con- 
ditions that seem to bear against it have a fanci- 
ful, rather than an actual, existence. The ex- 
treme cold, the blizzard, the prairie fire, the 
drouth, the summer frost, and all that, do come, 
and they hurt when they come. Nobody claims 
that the land is a Canaan. But it has a soil with 
two feet of richness, and a clay subsoil beneath 
it that holds water like a gourd. Crops will 
mature to harvest in 100 days. Live stock thrive 
and fatten on the range. No industrious farmer 
who knows how to farm can fail, or ever has 
failed, to reap from 20 to 200 per cent profit on 
his investment, despite all the natural ills pos- 
sible to the climate. More than this— the country 
for 400 miles north of our border 
is all right. It is the same country as our own 
Dakota, It has the same soil, the same healthy 
cold, the same natural plants. If it is higher 
in latitude, it is lower in altitude, and the day 
is coming when North Dakota and the Canadian 
Northwest will grow the wheat crop of the 
world. 

The artesian water system is as powerful at 
Jamestown as elsewhere along the i alley of the 
Jim River. It is a peculiar fact that only along 
the strip of country, about 100 miles wide, 
through which the Jim crawls sleepily' can this 
remarkable subterranean supply be obtained, and 
here, at all points, it is unfailingly found. Touch 
it, and it comes tearing forth in a stream that 
shoots fiercely into the air, with a power that 
needs only to be directed to serve an intelligent 
and profitable purpose. The pressure of the wells 
at Jamestown averages about 100 pounds to the 
square inch, developing enough power to run a 
roller-mill. The water is reached at a depth of 
about 1,600 feet. At Huron the pressure is 
Lighter, and the depth less. The depth and 
pressure grow less, in harmonious ratio, as you 
go south, until at Yankton the water is found 
at from 600 to 800 feet, and the pressure is about 
fifty pounds. Jamestown’s elevation above the 
sea-level is said to be 1,500 feet. Yankton’s is 
said to be 700 feet. The current of underground 
water, then, supposing it to be a flowing stream, 
as many scientific people aver, is only about 150 
or 200 feet below sea-level. Nearly a hundred 
shafts have been sunk from Jamestown to Yank- 
ton, and the experiences obtained seem to support 
the theory of a subterranean river, which in the 
neighborhood of Yankton opens and broadens into 
a great lake. The water is supposed to be con- 
tributed from the snowy summits of the Rockies, 


NORTH DAKOTA. 


35 


and this is a theory -which, if not entirely satis- 
factory, at least succeeds in doing more explain- 
ing with fewer hitches than any other. Hut, 
wherever the water comes from, it is a great 
boon to these Jim Valley towns. It supplies their 
city reservoirs, feeds their lire hose, runs their 
machinery, and performs every function oi natural j 

g as, except those connected with lighting ana [ 
eating. And it does all these tilings for prac- 
tically nothing. 

Jamestown sits astride of the railroad, and 
the railroad in some senses sits astiide of James- 
town. it spends its money in Jamestown liberally 
and does all it can to forward the town’s in- 
terests. On the other hand, it exacts more or 
less from Jamestown and aims to know who runs 
the city’s att'airs. Its Dakotan headquarters are 
here, and it spends $16,000 a month with the 
local merchants. It receives about $350,000 a 
year in freights, a circumstance suggestive of the 
volume of business done ov the people. The 
county contains about 1,300,000 acres, and per- 
haps as many as 125,000 are under cultivation. 
From these a million bushels of wheat are raised 
and 20o,000 bushels of other grains. Financially, 
the county is well off. The way these people run 
their public ail airs, so lar as their credit is con- 
cerned, may well be imitated in the East. On a 
property valuation of $2,726,523, scarcely a third 
of the real valuation, their tax rate is 16 mills, 
and they owe but $63,500, representing bridges 
and public buildings. They have an insane asy- 
lum here, a State institution, which is composed 
of four large ward buildings, wherein 300 
patients can be accommodated; an office building, 
a boiler house, where steam for heating and elec- 
tricity for lighting, are generated ; an office build, 
ing and an amusement hall, and the whole out- 
lit built in the most substantial manner and 
equipped with every appliance necessary for a 
first-class hospital, cost only about $250,000. It 
is filled with patients, who appear to have every, 
thing done for them that medical skill can devise 
and who are under as little that resembles re- 
straint as is consonant with their safety. At- 
tached to the hospital is a farm, upon which all 
who can work are furnished with employment. 
The whole place is a model of cleanliness, and the 
fresh air runs through it with a commendable 
regard for health. 

Nothing speaks more eloquently for the char- 
acter of these Western people than their public 
institutions. They have $2,000,000 invested in 
educational and charitable establishments. These 
include an agricultural college, two universities, 
two normal schools, two penitentiaries, two iu- 
sane hospitals, a school for deaf mutes, a relorm pris- 
on, modelled after our own reformatory at Elmira, 
and a school of mines at Rapid City, in the Black 
Hills, which has been of the largest assistance in 
developing the resources of that remarkable re- 
gion. Eighty per cent of the children in Dakota 
of school age are in actual attendance in the publio 
schools, and the value of the publio 
school property reaches quite $3,500,000. 
This is astonishing when one considers 
over what an immense area these people 
are spread and how rapidly they 
have made their homes and built up their 
educational system. In addition to the facilities 
for mental training that have sprung from public 
generosity no less than twelve denominational 
colleges are in active operation. One of them, 
controlled by Presbyterians, is placed in this city. 
It is doing an excellent work, and it owes a part 
of its usefulness to the benclicence of Colonel 
Elliott F. Shepard. These Dakotans, in founding 
a State, began at the beginning, and gave their 
children schools even before they had built them- 
selves homes. They have reached an honorable 
present, and they inay well be trusted to work 
out a splendid future. 


XVI. 


BISMARCK. 


THE TERRITORIAL CAPITAL AND ITS EN- 
VIRONS. 


AN TJN APPROPRIATED EMPIRE— CATTLE RAISING 
IN THE, BAD LANDS — NAVIGATI ON IN THE 
MISSOURI — SOME AMAZING FIGURES. 

Bismarck, North Dakota, May 26. 
Still the capital of both Dakotas, and hereafter 
to remain, for a time at least, the capital of North 
Dakota, Bismarck occupies a commanding place 
among the cities of the new Northwest. Its 
people are not numerous, but they have a great 
talent for pulling all together. Their social or- 
ganization is strong and compact. Incidentally 
they may be railroad or anti-railroad, ring or 
anti-ring, Republican or Democrat, farmers or 
corporation men, Methodists or Catholics, but 
primarily they are for Bismarck, and no other 
interest is allowed to come in where the interests 
of Bismarck are involved. This concentration of 
local forces, when sagaciously directed, never fails 
to make a city and to put it into prominence. 
Bismarck owes everything to the singleness of 
purpose and the unity of action which have 
characterized her people. They undertook to 
build a town before they had settled the country. 
Even yet the greatest area of untaken land in 
Dakota is around the capital city. Even yet two 
States, each larger than Massachuletts, could be 
made from tne public domain now awaiting entry 
in the Bismarck land office. Any reader who 
wishes to get a really accurate conception of the 
land question here should follow my description 
with a map. Any good atlas will do, but the 
Northern Pacific folder furnishes the best. This 
can be had at any large railway station, or by 
application to the company's office in St. PauL 
The seventh standard parallel divides the Da- 
kotas, leaving each of them 400 miles wide by 
200 miles long. The Northern Pacific runs across 
North Dakota in a straight line from Fargo. Its 
land grant includes every other section, that is, 
every other block one mile square, for fifty miles 
on either side of its track. All the country west 
of the Missouri and below that grant in both 
Dakotas, except the Black Hills region lying 
within the two forks of the Cheyenne River, is 
Indian country, and is now the subject of ne- 
gotiation between the Sioux and the Gov- 
ernment. Very little of this reservation is in 
North Dakota, but that larger half of the State 
west from Jamestown is unsettled. The Mani- 
toba Railroad, with its central office in St. Paul, 
crosses the Territory from Grand Forks, along a 
line about 150 miles north from the line of the 
Northern Pacific. It passes through some of the 
finest wheat lands in Dakota, still untouched and 
subject to entry at ihe United States Land Office 
in Devil’s Lake. As the Manitoba road nears the 
border, it reaches a country which cannot be sur- 
passed for stock-raising, as well as for diversified 


L. E. Q. 


36 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


farming. About twenty miles west from James- 
town is the long line of hills and ravines called 
the Coteaux du Missouri. These lands are sup- 
posed to be unavailable for farming, though I 
noticed as pretty lields of wheat there as else- 
where. The fact is. 1 fancy, that they have been 
depreciated simply because the land beyond them 
is everywhere level and more easily worked. In 
the valleys between the coteaux there are thou- 
sands of little lakes and ponds, and, as the coteaux 
grow thick, luxuriant grass, they furnish the 
best facilities for stock-farming. 

West of Bismarck and the river the country is 
geneially level until the Bad Lands are reached. 
They are not bad lands at ail, but wonderful 
lands. They constitute one of the most marvellous 
physical appearances to be observed on this con- 
tinent. They aie come upon suddenly, and with- 
out any suggestion that the prairie level is to be 
so strangely broken. All at once numberless 
peaks as sharp in their formation as the hngers 
on your hand, rise straight from the earth, an 
army of massive buttes. They are of all con- 
ceivable shapes, some are circular pyramids, per- 
fect in form. Others rise like quartz crystals, 
with sides as smooth as a board, and frequently 
from one of these straight and regular buttes 
the petrified stumps of enormous trees will pro- 
trude, silicitied by the action of the 

same waters that gave figure to the 

buttes themselves ages and ages ago. ihe Bad 
Lands begin about lOu miles west of Bismarck 
and follow the course, north and south, of the 
Little Missouri River. North of the railroad 
their finest scenic effects are on the eastern 
side of the Little Missouri, and no feat of pen 
or brush can give any fair conception of. the 
extravagant splendor of these fantastic lands. 
They assume not only every conceivable appear- 
ance, but all the appearances that might be at- 
tributed to the hand and the imagination of a 
race of mental freaks. They twist themselves 
into 10,000 different contortions. They show you 
devils, plunging horses, wolf-heads, old men, cut 
and moulded by wind and water in clay and 
sand and limestone, or in the firmer substance 
formed by petrification, shapes that seem oddly 
harmonious with the natural life that for so long 
a time made these wild places their habitation. 
At every turn your mind is ne.vly startled. You 
see devices not only in themselves grotesque, but 
standing, forth, shooting out, plunging down in 
such utterly novel and unnatural situations. 
Enormous masses of rock seem in the distance 
to be hanging by a single silken thread, poised 
over a plain on which a hundred figures dressed 
in white, blue, black, green, gray and yellow 
are dancing in gleeful and thoughtless sport, 
springing upwards, turning somersaults and per- 
forming all the tricks of a harlequin. The buttes 
themselves, with some part clad in the greenest 
verdure, elsewhere in the black weaving of a 
vegetation that has turned to coal, here in the 
pink trimmings of real terra cotki which lignite 
fires have been slowly baking, there in the creamy 
laces knitted by the winds through great deposits 
of alkali left upon the surface of the soil by 
waters that have long since been drained away,— 
the buttes themselves, multiplied 1 0,00o times and 
chiselled into castles, domes, spires, towers and 
monuments, present each its separate picture of 
weird but magnificent disorder. Those wise fel- 
lows who know everything say that there was 
once a great lake here which was gradually 
drained away through the two Missouris, and 
that the waters, as they swept toward the sea, 
cut and modelled the Bad Lands. Their name 
is an Indian legacy. 

The white man, when he came, soon found a 
use to which the Bad Lands could profitably be 
put, and they are now supporting immense herds 
of sheep and cattle. The grass grown upon the 
buttes and on the level plains between them is 
the best there is on earth. In winter the cattle 
have plenty of protection, and they take care 
of themselves. There is a sufficiency of water. 


After turning the herds loose, nothing remains 
for men to uo but to bring them together again 
twice a year, that the young may be properly 
branded and the fat steers shipped to market. 
Some hay is put up so that there may be no 
scarcity of food in case of a heavy lall of snow. 
But heavy snows are unusual in the Bad Lands, 
and unless the grass on the ground is actually 
beyond reach the cattle much prefer it to hay. 
Many noted ranches are in the Bad Lands, and 
a few years ago— les- than five— the cowboys 
of this region were *• bad men from Bitter Greek.” 
Their favorite amusement was to stop the rail- 
road train and make the conductor dance for 
them. Occasionally they would go through the 
cars and gather a few purses. How surely and 
quickly all that sort of thing flies before a tide 
of immigration. The cowboys keep lar away 
from the towns and depots now, and as you ride 
through the Bad Lands to-day you can see tennis 
courts chalked out on the lawns of the houses 
around depot sites and spruce young men and 
pretty girls loving away with rackets snd bright 
eyes in the most advanced Bar Harbor fashion. 
Four years ago, if a man with a silk hat had 
left the train at Medora the chances are even 
that neither he nor the hat would ever have 
been heard from again. Now, the English tourist 
wanders around and ogles through his eye-glass 
and wobbles his “ r : s” and drawls his “ dawncher- 
knaws” all unmolested. The avenger is gone. 
You must look elsewhere to find the old-time 
frontier. 

In some parts of Dakota the fuel question is a 
serious one. Within an area marked by a radius 
of 200 miles not a stick of natural timber rises 
above the plains. Not a suggestion of coal ap- 
pears under them. All fuel, of whatever nature, 
must be fetched in by the railroads, and the 
railroads don’t give their services for nothing. 
With such long winter seasons, the cost of living 
is heavily increased by the freight charges on 
fuel. In the course of a few years this situation 
will be materially alleviated. North and west of 
Bismarck, on both sides of the river, are coal 
fields of such immense proportions as to be 
practically inexhaustible. They extend in all di- 
rections, running north almost to the international 
line, and west into the Bad Lands. They run 
deep into the earth. Several veins have been 
followed to a depth of r >,0o0 feet without any 
indication that they intended to give out. In 
Bismarck and all along the line of the Northern 
Pacific this coal is used almost exclusively It is 
a lignite formation and appears to be the sub- 
structure of the country. Every farmer in that 
part of Dakota which is north and west of the 
capital possesses his own supply. When a lad 
is told by liis mother to fetch her some coal he 
goes into his mine, digs it out with one or two 
blows of his pick, and brings it back in a solid 
lump on his shoulder. Several mines have been 
opened for commercial purposes, and they are 
succeeding fairly well as business enterprises— 
none too well, of course, thou eh that is no fault 
of the coal’s. But where everybody can do his 
own mining there is not as large a demand as 
there might be for the results of corporate labor. 
The mines will have their rich opportunity as 
soon as Bismarck secures a railroad into South 
Dakota. There is where the coal is needed, and 
needed seriously. A road is now graded and lack- 
ing only the rails as far south as Aberdeen. 
It will be put in operation within another 
year, and then the mines can be worked 
to real advantage. With such an im. 
mense supply available, the price can never be 
forced to an extravagant figure. It, now ranges 
from one to two dollars a ten. The coal fs soft and 
slowly slacks when exposed to the air. so that 
larger quantities are needed than of harder and 
firmer coal. It is not mineral. It is lighter 
than the Town coal, has more water, more volatile 
morter. less carbon and less sulphur. As linusei- 
hoTd fuel it serves its best purpose and is entirely 


NORTH DAKOTA. 


37 


satisfactory. Ia an open grate it furnishes the 
prettiest sort of flame, producing a pinkish ash. 
Looking from the windows of a Northern Pacific 
train, the passengers may see hundreds of dark 
excavations made by the farmers into mounds and 
bluffs where good, thick surface seams have been 
discovered. With this industry waiting to be 
turned lo profit, and with the great Missouri flow- 
ing at, her feet, Bismarck has no need to worry 
about her future. 

The Missouri at Bismarck is better behaved, on 
the whole, than elsewhere along its course. It 
rises 1,500 miles further north and west, and occa- 
sionally in the early spring when the Chinook 
winds, sweeping across Northern Montana, melt 
the ice and start a rapid flow of water, gorges are 
formed at and around Bismarck, where the ice 
remains solid, and a flood is brought on. But the 
city, securely protected behind enormous bluff's, re- 
gards this misdemeanor as venial. The headquar- 
ters of the Missouri River Transportation Company 
are here, and it has various establishments, shops, 
shipyards and freight-houses, down upon the “ first 
bench,” as the lowest slope of land nearest the 
river is called. The company’s freight-house is a 
singular structure, 45 feet wide and 600 feet long. 
To some people figures never convey much of an 
idea, and therefore I will add that, n building 45 
feet by 600 is about as big a building as is worth 
while making in all this world of human endeavor. 
Two winters ago, the river, apparently dissatisfied 
with the situation of the building, quietly got up 
one night and laid it on a bluff some 200 feet 
above its orieinal site and about 400 feet nearer 
the town. Then, having stowed some thousands 
of tons of ice against, the freight-house to keep it 
in place, the river lowered its back and swept 
amiably on as before. There is a personality 
about the Missouri and a mischievous motive 
about its rascally performances that are highly 
amusing. The huge, unsightly steamboats that 
ply between St. Louis and Bismarck, and then for 
another thousand miles onward to Fort Benton, 
carrying from sixty to two hundred tons 
of freight, draw only from two to four feet of 
water! This is hard to believe, but it is a fact. 
And even then, they will often get into trouble. 
They will be going placidly along when suddenly 
the river will toss a sandbar in their way, and they 
will be buried in mud and misery. But the in- 
genuity of man has not failed to provide for this 
emergency. Each steamer is equipped with two 
big poles. These are let down into the mud and 
water, and by means of ropps and pulleys the boat 
is hoisted upon the poles out of the stream. Then, 
when the current, to its undoubted regret and an- 
noyance, has washed away the sand, the steamboat 
Jauntily proceeds. Nothing is funnier than to see 
a great, big boat pulling itself on top of a couple 
of crutches to cheat the sandbar. It is an inter- 
esting fact that since the Northern Pacific 
bridge was constructed across the Missouri 
it has shifted twenty-two Inches. Its huge supports 
are buried below the river bottom upon bed- 
rock, but they have moved, and tons, I had almost 
said aei-s. of earth have been depcsite l around 
them to assist in breaking the force of the ice 
gorges. 

In closing, as I do herewith, the story that has 
been too fleetly told of the material condition and 
the wonderful achievements of the two Dakotas, 
it may be desirable to collect a few of the more 
eloquent facts in a single forceful group. The 
population of these sister States lias come up in 
eighteen years from 100,000 to 600,000. In 
twelve years the acreage acquired by actual settle- 
ment lias been 44,000.000. The first railroad 
track was laid in 1 872. To-day you can ride 
5,000 miles over steel rails within the boundarv 
lines of North and South Dakota. You can start, 
for your newly taken homestead on a Monday and 
nan reach your final destination in three days 
without ever leaving your car. You will find 
your household sroods on a sidetrack waitinsr for 
you. and by the next Monday you can be breaking 


sod for your first crop. Conditions are not as 
they were in the days, still vividly clear in living 
men’s memories, when the prairies were only to be 
crossed in wooden-wheeled carts, drawn by a yoke 
of oxen and furnished with a barrel of flour in 
one end and a barrel of water in the other! To- 
day there are in Dakota 250,000 horses, 250,000 
milch cows, ©00,000 cattle, 230,000 sheep, 600,000 
hogs. They are worth $50,000,000, and to this 
grand fortune a 10 per cent accretion must be 
added every year. At this moment a harvest is 
growing, with every promise of happy realization, 
of 35,000,000 bushels of corn. 70,000,000 of wheat, 

5.000. 000 of flax, 10,000,000 of barley, 50,000,- 
000 of oats and 5,000,000 of potatoes! And of 
the imperial domain stretching from a central point 
200 miles north, east, south and west of the 

06.000. 000 acres that constitute these States, 

barely 7,000,000— less than one-thirteenth— have 
felt the harrow’s touch ! Everywhere, in social 
life, in religious life, in political life, a perfect 
and liberal organization exists. Wherever there 
is a settlement the spires of half a dozen churches 
rise and the bells of half a dozen schools sound 
out. Crime is scarcely heard of in Dakota. It 
has nothing that even faintly resembles a crimi- 
nal class. There are but two prisons in the two 
States that, really look like prisons, and the in- 
mates of these are only luckless creatures who 
couldn’t make things go and did a little pilfering 
to keep the wolf off. I suppose you think this 
sounds like a fairy tale? Well, I think so myself, 
but it is all the truth. L. E. Q. 


XVII. 


RIVALRIES OF POLITICS. 


THE GAME OF “ SINCH” BETWEEN THE TWO 
SECTIONS. 


north Dakota’s convention — candidates 

FOR THE TWO SENATORSHIRS— ACTIVITY 
OF THE FARMERS’ ALLIANCE. 

Bismarck, North Dakota, June 1. 

While travelling in a railroad car just after 
reaching Dakota, a stranger, an elderly, sharp- 
faced, sinister-looking person, touched me on the 
shoulder and said in tones that sounded somewhat 
menacing: “ Sonny, I ldn sinch you!” 

Not feeling sure I had correctly heard him, and 
not understanding what he meant, anyhow, I 
replied in a way that was intended to be exceed- 
ingly winsome and gentle, “ I, ah — beg pardon, 
sir ?” 

“ I kin sinch you!” 

There was no doubt about it. He said he could 
“ sinch” me. Wholly at a loss for anything bet- 
ter to reply, I smiled soothingly and said, “ Yes, 
er— thank you ; you’re very kind.” 

“ Hey ?” 

“ I’m much obliged to you.” 

“ Wot fer ?” 

“ For offering to ‘sinch’ me.” 

“ Well, then, come on.” 

There was something vicious about the man’s 
appearance, and the word “ sinch” sounded ugly. 
I hesitated, resolved first to parley, and, if worst 
came to worst— well, I would sell my life dearly. 

“ Why don’t you come on ?” he demanded. 

| “ Where ?” 


38 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


“ Over here.” 

“ What for ?” 

“ Ain’t you goin’ ter play ?” 

“ Piay what ?” 

“ Sinch.” 

Oh, it was a thing you played I My spirits rose, 
but still I pleaded that I didn’t know how. Then 
he explained, and as I travelled further I found 
that sinch is the great Northwestern game of 
cards, a recent invention, and played everywhere 
and by everybody. You can see people playing 
sinch in the hotel parlors, in the barrooms, on the 
cars, in private houses, and its phrases are the 
slang of the day. It is a variation of High, Low, 
Jack. The counting cards are the high, the low, 
the jack, the ten-spot, or game, each of which 
counts one, and the pedro, or five of trumps, 
which counts five. You deal each player six 
cards, and one after another they bet; that 
is, offer to make so many points, as many as they 
think their hands are capable of making. The 
player who otters the highest bet is entitled to 
name the trump, and the great effort of every, 
body else is “ to get the sinch on him” ; that is, 
to prevent him from making as many points as 
he has agreed to make. If he fails to make good 
his offer, he is “ sinched.” 

The politics of North Dakota has been one long 
game of sinch with South Dakota. It has been 
impossible to induce the two sections of the Ter- 
ritory to agree. The Northern people have 
claimed that they were paying far more than their 
share of the taxes without receiving any com- 
pensating benefits from the revenue raised. The 
Southern people, disputing these allegations, pre- 
sent others directly in contravention. They say 
the Northern men go into conventions and Legis- 
latures with them and want to run the entire 
show. The real trouble is that North and South 
are apart in interest. They have no common 
cause. They differ from each other in character, 
method and purpose, and they cannot see things 
in the same light. The first clash led to others 
and there was nothing to bring them together. 
There is not much doubt, I faiicy, that the North- 
ern men generally “ got the sinch on” tre South. 
They are as crafty a lot of politicians as can be 
developed under a Territorial system. Being in 
the minority, their sole opportunity lay in or- 
ganization. They knew that. They understood 
that they could only accomplish what they want- 
ed by acting as a unit, by splitting the Southern 
men into factions and by joining hands with that 
faction which most wanted their support. Their 
leader, one of the most remarkable men in the 
Western country, and essentially a product of it, 
was and is the Hon. Alexander McKensie. 

They don’t say “ the Honorable” out here to 
anybody. Western people waste no time in super- 
fluous compliment. Many of their peculiarities 
are resultant in a measure from their earlier as- 
sociation with the Indians. Half the people you 
meet in Western Dakota and Eastern Montana 
will say, in greeting you, simply “ How ?” “ How” 
is the universal Indian salutation, and the only 
English word you can induce many of them to 
speak. There are dozens of young Indians who 
have received a complete English education at 
Carlisle or Hampton, who have gone back to their 
tribes, relapsed into barbarism, and who wouldn’t 
now for a farm say another English word than 
“ How.” White people have token it up, and its 
use illustrates the Western tendency to put every- 
thing into as few words as possible. I saw a 
man go into a Montana postoffice the other day— 
a white man — and give his wrists a queer turn. 
The postmaster in reply handed him an envelope. 
The man wasn’t deaf or dumb. He was only using 
the Injun sign language. It. was no trouble to 
turn his wrists, while valuable time and breath 
would have been spent in saying, “ Kind sir, will 
you be good enough to give me a 2-cent stamped 
envelope?” Of course, not everybody emplovs 
these economical devices, but they are sufficiently 


in use to exert a moral influence on all conversa- 
tion. Mr. McKensie, great as he is (and nobody 
here is greater), is always addressed as “ Aleck,” 
not wholly because he is a popular politician, but 
as well because “ Aleck” is a short and direct 
method of reaching the desired result. 

Mr. McKensie’s leadership in North Dakota poli- 
tics, so far as he cnooses to exert it, is command- 
ing. The secret of that lies, I suspect, in his- 
anility to perceive as well what he cannot uo as 
wnat he can. Bride is the rock on which most 
political leaders of the absolute type are wrecked, 
lo show how very big they are, tney attempt the 
particular enterprise they cannot succeed in. Mr. 
Mcivensie has not made that blunder yet. His 
personality is charming. He came to Dakota an 
ignorant young iScotcnman, without a friend in 
tne world or a penny. He peddled “ pop” in the 
streets of Bismarck. He worked as a sectaon- 
hand, shovelling dirt on the Northern Pacilie Rail- 
road, and his first distinctive rise in society was 
when he became a section boss. He isn’t ashamed 
of that past, and i met no one in North Dakota 
who was ashamed of it for him. But it is de- 
cidedly a past. He is a great big, good-natured- 
looking giant, with clear blue eyes that gaze 
straight into whatever they are directed at, and 
a particularly strong jawbone. That jawbone 
is the thing that illustrates Mr. McKensie. It 
will exert more influence on the organization of 
North Dakota’s State Government than the entire 
anatomy of most other men. 

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of 
Mr. McKensie’s relation to the work now being, 
done la North Dakota. If you talk with him, you 
will observe that he never uses the personal pro- 
noun, that he never raises his voice above the con- 
versational tone, that he never tells you anything, 
you don’t already know, and that, as a result of 
the talk, you have, somehow or another, a better- 
opinion of yourself than you had before. If, before 
seeing him, you have travelled through South Da- 
kota, you will wonder where the horns and the 
cloven foot are of which you heard so much. 

Nothing I have said about Mr. McKensie must 
lead to the inference that the people of North Da- 
kota are lacking in self-assertion. On the con- 
trary, it is the fidelity with which he has served 
their causes that has given him his paramount 
place. They find no fault with him for being pow- 
erful. From Yankton to Aberdeen in Soutli Da- ■ 
kota you hear him execrated as a tyrant and a. 
boss. From Pembina to Bismarck in North Da- 
kota you hear him glorified as a patriot. The 
people on whom he has so often “ got the sinch” 
say ho is without a redeeming virtue. The people 
for whom the “ sinching” was done say that noth- 
ing on earth is too good for him. 

North Dakota’s experiment in constitution-mak- 
ing will be watched -with profound interest by 
thoughtful people. Of the seventy-five men who 
will compose the convention, forty are farmers. 
There are but five men among them all who can be 
called politicians. Only ten, I think, have ever 
held office. Only six have ever been in the Legis- 
lature. Only six are lawyers. It is decidedly an. 
of-the-people body. No class has attempted to 
control it, and no one can so much as guess how it> 
will stand on anything. The prevailing opinion is 
that it will prove to be a strong temperance body, 
but beyond this no one attempts to indulge in 
much prophecy. The Farmers’ Alliance is strong 
in both Dakotas, and particularly strong i i the 
South. It includes nearly 800 local alliances, 
each containing from twenty-five to 200 members. 
Its general influence is undoubtedly excellent, and 
it has succeeded in securing for the farmers many 
important concessions from the railroads, from 
machinery manufacturers, and from other people 
with whom they have large aggregate dealings. 
As a defence against impositions and aggre-sions. 
against, faulty and hostile legislation, against 
everything, indeed, that menaced agricultural in- 
terests, which, of course, are the prime interests- 


NORTH DAKOTA. 


39 


of the people, it has proved powerful. But latterly 
its officers have been taking a position in politics 
which portends trouble. 'The president of the Al- 
liance is a man named H. L. Houcks, said to be a 
Canadian. Mr. Houcks unquestionably possesses 
considerable executive ability, but he is rapidly 
steering the Alliance upon rocks. He argues that 
because the farmers constitute so large a propor- 
tion of the population of Dakota they should name 
all the State officials. He openly announces his 
intention to make the Alliance organization the 
controlling factor in politics. Every candidate 
must be an Alliance man, and no one is to be 
allowed to hold office except he be lranked by 
Mr. Houcks. On this principle there is no reason 
why the Masons or the Odd Fellows, the Cath- 
olics or the Baptists should not ligure up their re- 
spective strength and demand a proportional rec- 
ognition. If a man is to be Governor or Sen- 
ator, not because he possesses peculiar qualifica- 
tions as a public man, but because he is a farmer, 
no reason exists why any other class of citizens 
should not use the same argument, and politics 
would soon become a wrangle between classes of 
the community, each to serve its separate advan- 
tage rather than that of the whole people. The 
Republican majority in South Dakota is 20 , 000 . 
In North Dakota it is fully 10 , 000 . These are ma- 
jorities which Mr. Houcks cannot disturb, even 
should he attempt to sell the Alliance to the Dem- 
ocrats. An effort of this character was made a 
year ago, when Mr. Houcks induced his followers 
to bolt the Republican candidate for Congress. 
He hitched his team to the Democratic cart, but 
the team wouldn’t go. He found himself unable 
to deliver the Alliance vote. The Republican can- 
didate’s majority was greater than ever. 

Unwarned by this interesting experience, Mr. 
Loucks and his friends are talking energetically 
about nominating a full ticket against that sub- 
mitted by the Republican Convention in South 
Dakota, their scheme being to have the Demo- 
crats indorse it. They ha\e actually called a 
convention of the Alliance at Huron on June 
28 , when they undoubtedly hope to put through 
this ambitious undertaking. Their proceedings 
are exciting some interest, directed chiefly at 
Houcks himself. People are curious to know what 
he is after. That he must be after something is 
regarded as certain. The farmers of Dakota com- 
pose the Republican party. They and the party 
are equivalent terms. In supporting it they sup- 
port themselves. They could by no possibility’ 
hurt it without hurting themselves. They could 
serve no conceivable end of their own by 
giving the State to the Democrats, though they 
might serve an end of Mr. Houck’s. Fortunately 
they understand the situation. They are not for 


sale. Neither will they allow their excellent or- 
ganization to be wrecked on the barren rock of 
anybody's ambition. Before the convention meets 
Mr. Houcks will probably realize the futility of 
the present plan. If he doesn’t, he will in- 
evitably meet with disaster. 

In North Dakota the Alliance is under a wiser 
and safer leadership. No division into separate 
State organizations has yet taken place, nut the 
line has been drawn, and the arrangements are 
made for an early division. It is quite possible 
that an Alliance man will be nominated on the 
Republican ticket for Governor, and. in any 
event, the farmers’ organization will be recog- 
nized. Thus far it has escaped many of the perils 
which so often overcome associations intended to 
further class interests. It has not spread over 
60 much ground as the old Grange attempted to 
cover. It does not antagonize every other branch 
of industry. It runs an insurance company and 
a purchasing company, insuring against all kinds 
of natural catastrophes to crops, and purchasing 
the staple articles, such as twine and machinery, 
that farmero require. This policy keeps the Al- 
liance within reasonable bounds, and wards from 
it much of the prejudice usually aroused against 
such societies. As yet it is regarded throughout 
all Dakota with much sympathy. The only thing 
that can hurt it is crazy politics on the part of 
its leaders. Several of them are now badly 
touched with the swelled head. 

Senatorial timber in North Dakota is plenti- 
ful, and the people are busy discussing the par- 
ticular qualities of particular trees. Nobody’s 
fortunes are very far advanced as yet, though 
the elect, on of ex-Governor Gilbert A. Pierce may 
be said to be more than foreshadowed. Gov- 
ernor Pierce was the successor of Governor Ord- 
way, and was displaced by Cleveland to make 
room for Governor Church. If the election were 
to take place now. Governor Pierce would almost 
certainly be chosen as one of the Senators. Who 
tl.e other would be is a purely speculative prob- 
lem. Governor Ordway is the man most talked 
about, but he and Pierce are both from Bismarck. 
The Red River Valley will claim one of the 
Senators, and already presents a score of more or 
less distinguished candidates, of whom the biggest, 
in more senses than one, is Major Edwards, of 
“ The Fargo Argus.” The handsomest is General 
Harrison Allen, formerly of Pennsylvania, which 
is understood to be unanimously for him. 1 'he 
homeliest is the Hon. Jud Ha Moure, who con- 
trols the half-breed counties on the border, and 
who is much better than he looks. The present 
Secretary of the Territory, Mr. Richardson, is a 
quiescent candidate, neither seeking nor reject- 
ing, and, ’f I were a prophet— but, then. I’m not. 

H. E. Q. 


40 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


MONTANA. 


xvin. 

A COUNTRY OF VARIED RE- 
SOURCES. 

AMONG THE FOOTHILLS OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. 


MILES CITY, THE THRIVING CENTRE OF A 
GREAT STOCK-RAISING COUNTRY. 

Miles City, Montana, June 3. 

Wnen the westward traveller enters the Bad 
Lands of the Little Missouri, he bids good-by to 
the black soil and the level prairies that make the 
two Dakotas. He comes upon another soil, an- 
other climate, another people and many another 
way of living. He enters the domain of the miner 
and the stock-raiser. He finds himself in a 
wonderland, where strange things never quit 
happening, where both accident and industry 
make men rich almost before they know it, and 
where mad-cap luck tosses favors about with a 
hand as prodigal as it is inconsiderate. Montana 
is an infant giant, which as yet knows nothing of 
its strength, and less than nothing about how to 
use it. Here and there are old towns, where 
custom has made a grade and laid grooved rails 
upon it; but, for its length and breadth, it is as 
strange even to its own people as were the new 
Indies to the European adventurers of the six- 
teenth century. Vast expanses of country are still 
unsurveyed. Fertile valleys, capable of produc- 
ing millions in crops, are as yet known only to 
wolves and the Indians. Mountains where the 
clearest indications of mineral wealth have been 
observed are as jet unscratched. The country is 
unsettled in all directions, and no one can look 
around him as he travels along lonely miles 
of untenanted prairie or over mountains, where 
no trails are to be found except those of mountain 
lions, bears and elk, without feeling that how- 
ever great the work of these Montana people has 
been in digging treasures and in growing grain, 
they have not yet recorded so much as the pref- 
ace to the book of their achievement. 

Eastern Montana, lying along the Y'ellowstone 
and the Upper Missouri, is almost wholly an agri- 
cultural and stock-raising country. Its lands are 
“ bottoms,” “ benches,” “ hogs’ backs,” “ divides” 
and mountains. The mountains have not been 
investigated. To understand the character of the 
country, it is necessary to know that it emerged 
6lowly from former watery confines. It was all 
under water not so very long ago, but long enough 
to require the use of cycles in the measurement 
of time, and as the waters were drained off they 
first left mountain heights. Then they were parted 
by long ridges of high hills traversing miles of 
country. The land lies comparatively low on 
either side of these ridges, and they are called “ di- 
vides.” Still falling away and seeking escape into 


the ocean, the waters left many big round mounds, 
nicknamed " hogs’ backs,” many buttes, either in 
series or solitary. Then, for ages, the waters de- 
clined but slowly. Their beds lay between these 
hills and buttes, where they formed a succession 
of great lakes. What used to be lake bottoms are 
now the valleys of permanent rivers and creeks, 
eternally fed by mountain snow. These valleys 
constitute the arable lands of Montana and Wy- 
oming and their soil, being for a 6olid foot in 
depth a pure alluvial deposit, is necessarily rich 
and fertile. The lake waters as they fell formed 
a succession of prairie levels, each lower than the 
other, each thousands of acres in extent, called 
“ benches,” and the last bench, the one nearest 
the rivers or creeks, is a “ bottom.” 

Now, then, you understand how this is at once 
a wonderful mineral country, a wonderful stock 
country and a wonderful agricultural country. 
The gold, silver, tin, iron and coal are in the 
mountains, and $30,000,000 is dug out every 
year. The cattle have an illimitable grazing field 
upon the hills and prairies with a thousand moun- 
tain streams, little and big, to afford them water, 
coulees tor ravines) innumerable in which to seek 
i-helter from storms, and hay two feet high td 
feed on. The prairie benches will grow anj'thing 
that can be grown in a temperate climate, wheat, 
corn, oats, barley, rye, garden vegetables and 
fruits. You can come and see all these things 
growing, the people are hospitable, and will cheer- 
fully show what they possess. Production is de- 
pendent upon irrigation, which in man 3 r valleys is 
reduced to a perfect system. I shall presently de- 
scribe the practical operation of the system, but 
it is enough to say at this time that its success is 
beyond all question or dispute. Those who do 
dispute it, don’t understand it. In Custer County, 
of which Miles City is the capital town, there are 
about 15,000,000 acres in crop to-day upon land 
which without irrigation would be as dry as dust. 
Thirty ditches, supplied from the Y'ellowstone 
mainly, furnish the necessary water, and the farmer 
who understands his business knows ju-t when, 
where and in what amount to distribute his moist- 
ure. In the matter of irrigation Custer County is 
not a model. Its people are given over to stock 
raising and comparatively little ranching (or 
farming) is done. What the country needs most 
for 150 miles around Miles City are ranchmen. 
Not, even the home market for farm products is 
fully supplied. 

Miles City was an outcome of the Custer massa- 
cre. The Indians, in 1876, held the whole country 
from the Bad Lands, in Dakota, to the Big Horn 
River, in Montana. Their full strength was 
amassed along the Yellowstone. They escaped 
from General Terry and scampered into the Big 
Horn country, where Custer and his brave 300 
were mowed down. That event decided the Gov- 
ernment to take vigorous measures and to con- 
fine the Sioux within the limits of their present 
reservation, east of the Missouri. Two forts were 
established, one, named for Custer, within sight 
of the bluff on which he was killed, and one here 
at Miles City, which took its name from that of 
th ■ pluckiest, and 6urel.v the luckiest, Indian flghte 
in the land. North of the Yellowstone the country 
was thrown open, and cattle-men soon possessed 
it. Enormous bands of Texan steers were driven 
north from the breeding lands, with Texan cow- 
boys attending them. The Texan cowboy of that 
day was usually a man with a record. He was 
“ bad,” and “ badness” -was his pride and glory. 
No material inducement could have made him 
virtuous. He settled the Indian question in short 
order. Cowboys new in the business took Indians 
as targets and learned to shoot by practising on a 
Crow buck. They were a ruffianly lot of knaves, 
but they quickly subjected the r°d ruffians and 
prepared the land for peaceful settlement. As the 
railroad drew onward toward the coast they dis- 
appeared. The herds they tended were owned by 
business men in the East who wanted to make 


MONTANA. 


41 


money, and who saw only financial disaster ahead 
of them so long as their interests were in the hands 
of desperadoes. Little by little new methods and 
new men made the country warm for dare-devils. 
Many were hung by “ vigilantes.” Many were 
put in prison. Many escaped to South America 
and Canada. Such as were naturally des, toils of 
living decent, honest lives, and were “ bad” only 
by reason of their association, turned over a new 
leaf and settled down. Gambling houses were 
•suppressed. Fast women, the worst curse of early 
frontier life, were chased away. 

Then, from 1880 to 1883, came the era of the 
buffalo hunter. The hills aud plains at that time 
were covered with Buffaloes. Driven out of Min- 
nesota, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Dakota, these 
noble animals had reached their last refuge ; but a 
refuge it soon ceased to be. They were literally 
butchered. Miles City became a depot for the 
miserable crew of lazy fellows, who, capable of 
no honest and useful employment, spent their time 
slaughtering the poor buffalo. Scores were killed 
where one was skinned. There was, of course! an 
industry in the buffalo hides, and carloads were 
shipped every day. But by far the greater num- 
ber of the cattle were shot down just for fun, and 
left to rot where they fell, untouched by the knife. 
In four years the end came, and in those four years 
millions of buffaloes were inexcusably, wickedly 
-slain. Few were left. In the Northwestern Can- 
adian country, and in the basin formed by the 
two lifts of the Big Horn Mountains a few small 
bands remain. There’s a captive band in the Yel- 
lowstone, and a few little bunches here and there 
through the country, and these are all. They will 
not breed in captivity, and none of the various 
attempts to cross them with ordinary cattle has 
proved a clear success. The havoc wrought by 
the buffalo hunters of ’80, ’81, ’82 and ’83 cannot 
be made up for now. 

The frontier towns of Montana and Wyoming 
underwent now another distinct change. They 
had advanced a step or two when the cowboy gave 
way to the hunter. They came up many steps 
when the hunter, forced to starve, work or run 
away, preferred the last chance and began to drop 
off. The gin-mills quickly lost their old-time im- 
portance. Gambling ceased to be esteemed the 
-chief end of man. Runaway convicts ceased to be 
the greatest, men in a community. Murderers 
found murdering too risky a trade. In-coming 
capital demanded the calm reign of order. New 
immigrants turned their attention to ranching, 
banking and store-keeping. They were always 
ready to help the sheriff when he needed help and 
to stiffen his back when he need°d courage. Every- 
body was tired of wild life. Everybody wanted 
to be comfortable and happy. The refining influ- 
ence of woman, the most potent influence of all, 
whether for good or ill, was brought to bear upon 
all conditions of society, and within three years 
more, or by the end of 1886, the last vestige of 
dare-devil life in the Northwestern towns had been 
swept away. Six years ago Miles City was a 
veritable hell. To-day it is one of the quietest, 
busiest little places in the land. I have looked in 
vain to find a frontier town such as used to fur- 
nish stories of wholesale shooting matches. There 
is not even a frontier any longer. There is no 
place where civilized life, or even settlement, stops 
entirely. Just when you think you have reached 
such a place you see smoke ahead. 

The cattle district of which Miles City is the 
•centre reaches to the north 100 miles, to the south 
another hundred, and to the east a hundred more. 
It embraces about 300 “ outfits,” and each of these 
owns from 5 00 to 30,000 cattle. The winter of 
1886 was a long, cold, bitter season, and it 
brought, heavy losses to the cattle men. Ordi- 
narily, and always until that season’s unhappy 
experience had taught, a lesson, the cattle were 
left to shift for themselves all winter on the range. 
Montana winters are usually short. The first 
severe cold comes with Christmas, and the ice 


■ begins to melt in March. Little snow falls, and 
the percentage of loss among the cattle on account 
of the weather is altogether inconsiderable. They 
can easily paw away the snow and get at the 
grass. But early in the winter of 1 886 a monster 
storm came, and after it had laid a foot of snow on 
the ground it turned to sleet and froze a truck 
crust over the snow. Week after week, month 
after month, the. bitter cold continued, and from 
60 to 75 per cent of the cattle in this country froze 
and starved to death. Many outfits were utterly 
ruined and forced out of the business. Those that 
recovered adopted a new policy. They generally 
stopped breeding, and spent their time fattening 
Southern cattle for the market. Vast herds of 
yearlings were brought North from Texas every 
spring, left on the range for a summer and a win- 
ter, and sold for beef after the spring round-up. 

Fattening beef for the market is now the prin- 
cipal work of the Montana and Wyoming ranches. 
That can be done nowhere so cheaply as here. 
The risk is small, the prouts large. Large amounts 
of new capital have come in since the dread 
winter, and what was lost has been more than 
redeemed. The cattlemen are not as careless of 
their property as they were, however. They put 
away a good deal of hay, enough to save their 
cattle from any such general destruction as be- 
fell them in ’86. Another effect of that calamity 
was to give an impetus to horse aud sheep raising. 
The old-time Texans had done much to bring 
sheep-raising into contempt. Their adage was 
that no white man should herd sheep, and for 
several years they would not allow any sheep in 
the country. They would stampede their cattle 
through a herd of sheep with no more conscience 
than the Dakota small-boy exhibits chasing 
gophers. But the sheep outlived the Texans, and 
they are menacing the cattle business. Cattle 
can’t graze where sheep have been before them. 
Nothing is left to graze on. The sheep-men have 
two sources of revenue— wool and mutton — to the 
cattle-men's one. Their herds require vastly more 
attention than the cattle ask, but theft - profits 
are larger. The cattle business is not increasing 
to-day, but the sheep business grows steadily. 
The wool market is never overstocked, or, if it 
is, the mutton market isn’t. If worst should ever 
come to worst, the spring lamb market happily 
remains, and they tell me that no belter spring 
lamb was ever tasted than is furnished by twenty- 
vear-old rams fattened on the hogs’ backs of the 
Yellowstone. These three stock-raising industries, 
horses, cattle and sheep, have built up Miles 
City, until it is now a large and strong munici- 
pality. Its principal population is furnished by 
Eastern and Southern Americans, but the China- 
man and the negro, the Mexican an I the half- 
breed, are all represented. It was formerly sup- 
posed that this arid region was incapable of sus- 
taining even cattle. That disproved, its utter 
uselessness as an agricultural country was urged 
against it. It is now impossible to present this 
indictment, and people are beginning to believe, 
what is the fact, that industry and common sense 
can do anything here that that they can do else- 
where. The country invites every kind of human 
occupation. There is room for all. All are 
needed, and all will surely pay. I have not heard 
of a single manuiactunng establislunent founded 
by practical men which has stopped its engine or 
its wheel a single working day since its doors 
were first thrown open. Almost everything the 
people are buying from abroad might just as well 
be made here. The East needs to remodel its 
ideas of this country. It is to-day a dead-in- 
earnest country. It is not so proud of its past 
as confident of its future. The grand old ro- 
mances ol the days when prospecting parties 
1 ought Indians at every step they took, when 
heavy-bearded cowboys, covered wi.h buttons, 
fringe and six-shooters, made pie of tenderfeet, 
when miners gambled fortunes between nightfall 
and sunrise, and when whole communities were 
*• held up'’ by single-armed desperadoes— these are 
fast becoming legends and fairy tales. If you 


42 


NEW EMPIRES IX THE NORTHWEST. 


behave yourself here, you are as free from peril 
as you could be in Philadelphia or New- York. 
If you don’t behave yourself, you will be as 
quickly led to the same old iron-barred, common- 
place jail you were familiar with elsewhere. To 
the gritty settler who is after money and not 
blood, a home and not a rum shack, there never 
was a time as promising as this for trying his 
chances with nature. The odds are all in his 
favor, for he woos a willing bride. 

L. E. Q. 


XIX. 


TllE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. 

WHAT IRRIGATION HAS DONE FOR A STER- 
ILE SOIL. 


THE DITCH FARMS AROUND BILLINGS — THE 
TOWN AND ITS PROJECTOR— TRYING TO 
OPEN THE CROW RESERVATION. 

Billings, Montana, June 7. 

There used to be— maybe there is yet— a class 
of grangers who did not like the use of the word 
“ scientific” in qualification of the word “ farm- 
ing.” A scientific farmer was to them a “ fool 
farmer,” wondrous knowing with his tongue, but 
all luckless with his hand, able to work out great 
things on paper, but palsied so soon as he began 
to work them out on the unappreciative soil. 
Much of the prejudice in the East against irriga- 
tion probably proceeds from the idea that it is 
a scientifically evolved scheme to force Nature 
against her will. Those who entertain such no- 
tions as this should make a trip out to the arid 
belt just to study the actual operation of inducted 
water, the processes by which it is distributed, 
its effect upon the soil and the results in crops 
taken from land which is naturally a sterile, 
barren desert. They would have their eyes 
opened and their minds improved. There are 
farmers— or ranchers, as farmers are called here- 
in Montana and Wyoming who would no more 
exchange the 640 acres which they have reclaimed 
by irrigation under the Desert Land law, and for 
which they have paid SI 25 per acre, for the 
best farm in New-England, than the owner of a 
Fifth-ave. house and lot would exchange his prop- 
erty for a Jersey marsh ! There are ranchers here 
who seriously declare that they would not farm 
anywhere, no matter what the rainfall might be, 
without digging a ditch and running the -water 
wherever they might have use for it. They prove 
their sincerity by showing you ears of corn eight 
and ten inches long, of which they have grown 
a hundred bushels to the aore. They show you 
oats weighing forty pounds to the bushel, which 
they have grown in quantities from seventy to 
eighty-five bushels to the acre. They show you 
wheat, not as yet of the first Dakota grade, but 
certainly excellent wheat, of which they take 
forty or forty-five bushels from every acre sown. 
They show you hay richer, longer and far better 
than is produced on any Eastern farm, and garden 
vegetables and small fruits that are not to be 
called second to any, no matter where they may 
be grown. They take you over farms thoroughly 
equipped with machinery, buildings and live stock, 
and they tell you that when they came West they 
had less than SI 00, and that all that is to be 
6een is the product of that ranch, the unbroken 
fielcs of which, still as dry as chips, grow nothing 
but sage-bushes. 

Montana is a dry country only in the sense 


that the rainfall is uncertain and insufficient. 
There are flowing streams in plenty. The Yel- 
lowstone is a river of some magnitude, and it is 
led by a hundred little mountain creeks. _ It con- 
tains all the water necessary to irrigate the whole 
region it drains, and so long as moisture makes 
clouds and the mountain summits retain snow its 
flow will be steady. The valleys of the Yellow- 
stone supply themselves with water from tliat- 
river, ind the “ bottoms” of each separate creek, 
so far as they have been settled, draw upon the 
flow nearest them. The ranchers of each par- 
ticular neighborhood usually act in concert 
in building the big ditch, the one 
that, flowing for twenty, thirty or even sixty 
miles, incloses all their ranches and draws enough 
from the river to irrigate the entire country it 
travels through. The ditch at Billings is thirty- 
seven miles long, six feet wide, and usually has a 
depth of at least a foot. Its carrying capacity is 
10,000 inches of water, enough to irrigate an area 
of 25,000 acres. Each rancher digs his own sys- 
tem of ditches for his own place, with a main 
ditch leading from the big or general ditch 
through which his supply comes. He pays for 
the water by the square inch taken for the season, 
the price varying from SI to $2, and he estimates 
that a square inch of water will be needed for 
every acre of ground put in crops. His ditches 
lead to each field, and there he uses the water as 
his experience and judgment show to be best for 
the kind of crop he is raising. Fields of wheat* 
oats and other grasses are usually flooded. The 
ditches around them are dammed, and the water is 
allowed to overflow. For corn, vegetables and 
crops that grow in rows lateral ditches are em- 
ployed, running between the planted rows, and the 
water, sent gently along, is made to soak into the 
ground. If a farmer knows when his crops n"ed 
water and how much they need, it certainly does 
seem as if this were the happiest possible soluti n of 
the moisture problem. If they get what they want, 
get it when they want it, and get all they want of 
it, what more could be desired ? It will not do to 
contend that the form in which the water is given 
them is not good, for you are answered by pump- 
kins as big as a dog-house, strawberries sweet and 
delicious, grain of every description and hay two 
feet high, and these constitute an answer that 
does all the answering one can grapple with. The 
water of all these streams comes from the moun- 
tains, and when it has reached the bottom level it 
has travelled far enough to become impregnated 
with a great deal of rich vegetable matter. Its 
service to the soil as a fertilizer is undoubted and 
important. 

Billings was a product of the sagacious fore- 
sight of Mr. Heman Clark, the aqueduct con- 
tractor. Mr. Clark built that portion of the 
Northern Pacific which runs along the Yellow- 
stone, and when his eyes fell upon this beautiful 
valley, inclosed by rocky, sandy cliffs that stand 
as straight and high above the plain as the High- 
lands stand above the waves of the Hudson, he 
thought he detected a great opportunity to swell 
his material resources. He formed a company 
through which he bought all the land in the valley 
that was included in the railroad grant. That was 
half the valley, every other block a mile square, 
or about 60,000 acres. He got it at the bottom 
price, lie selected a town-site, plotted it, got it 
approved by the railroad people, and advertised 
its lots for sale upon a given day. Mr. Clark’s 
scheme was big— on paper. He made many prom- 
ises on behalf of the Northern Pacific and himself 
as to improvements that would surely be made, 
and when the auction sale of lots occurred he had 
a crowd of settlers and speculators camped in 
tents on the prairie all ready to buy his lots. The 
impression prevails that Mr. Clark got a great 
deal out of Billings, though what Billings got 
out of Mr. Clark is by no mow s so w 
tained. He presently abandoned it to enter the 
“ combine,” in which he and Governor Hill’s friend- 


MONTANA. 


4 » 


O’Brien, the lamented Keenan and the wily Flynn 
are the chief ornaments. 

Billings has contrived to get along, however, 
despite his cold neglect. It has become one of the 
foremost towns of Eastern Montana. Its valley 
lands have proved to be among the most fertile 
portions of the new State, and are rapidly being 
taken up by ranchmen, whose cultivated fields are 
stretching further and wider every year. At one 
time it was the centre of a great cattle country, 
and large herds still roam upon the range tribu- 
tary to Billings. But, as the range has become 
contracted by the influx of new settlers, the sheep 
industry has grown in importance, until it is to- 
day more profitable and larger than the cattle 
industry. As many as 1,400,000 pounds of wool 
were shipped from Billings in 1888, and the ship- 
ments for this year promise to reach nearly 
2,000,000. The mutton market was supplied 
with 63,200 head of sheep, and the beef market 
with 8,160 head of cattle, though these figures 
by no means represent the full measure of the 
sheep and cattle business done in the country sur- 
rounding Billings. In forwarding their beef and 
mutton to market growers usually avoid the big 
towns. They ship lrom the nearest small station, 
where their cowboys and herders will be subjected 
to as few temptations as possible. A fairer idea 
of the business done by the 1,500 people who 
compose the population of this brisk little town 
will be obtained from the freight statistics of 
the railroad. These show a flow of trade of 101,- 
000,000 pounds. 

Little has yet been done to ascertain the mineral 
resources of this region. Prospectors tell inter- 
esting stories of what they have seen in the Yel- 
lowstone Mountains, and in the country that ad- 
joins the big Crow Indian Reservation, south of 
the Yellowstone River, lead and silver ore, rather 
low in grade, but immense in quantity, has been 
found. Sixteen silver mines are in operation 
around Cooke City, and it is not to be doubted 
that the mineral deposit of that entire neighbor- 
hood will in time show large returns. The trouble 
in developing such interests is the lack of rail- 
road facilities. The ore cannot be disposed of 
quickly enough to make mining profitable. A 
road is now being constructed from Billings to the 
mo th of •..lark's Fork, and thonre along the Fork 
to Cooke City, with a spur at Bear's Creek lead- 
ing to the Red Lodge coal fields. So soon as this 
enterprise is completed a country known to be 
full of good ore, in which mining claims in- 
numerable have been staked out, will be put in 
communication with the world. The coal fields 
around Red Lodge have been thoroughly investi- 
gated. They insure another abundant supply of 
good carbon coal, not comparable with the coal 
of Western Pennsylvania, but still of a sufficient 
quality to set people’s minds easy about fuel. 

South of Billings, and extending for 120 miles 
along the Yellowstone, is the big Crow Indian 
Reservation, where 2,300 of the most objectionable 
Indians hold 5,500,000 acres of the best land in 
Montana. There are over 2,000 acres to every 
man, woman and child in the tribe, and scarcely 
100 acres in crop throughout the length and 
breadth of the reservation. The Government is 
already moving in the right direction with regard 
to these redskins. They are being placed on lands 
of their own, and when this work is completed the 
untaken part of the reservation will be thrown 
open to settlers. This plan proceeds -very slowly, 
and the people are exceedingly restless. There 
are a host of white people making money out of 
the Indians, or, rather, out of the Government 
policy which supports them in utter idleness. The 
contractors who furnish Indian sunplies, the trad- 
ers, the cattle-men, who use the Indian lands for 
practically nothing as a range, and all such people, 
always exert their utmost influence to delay meas- 
ures looking to the red man’s improvement. 
They don’t want to see him estabk'shed on a farm 
of his own, engaged in earning his own living. 
They prefer to continue to make money in Gov- 


ernment contracts. Nearly a third of the tribe 
has been placed, and considerable progress will be 
made with the rest this summer. 

A small part of the reservation was thrown 
open recently, and settlers went quickly upon it. 
Several filed on the odd-numbered sections within 
forty miles of the railroad. The Northern Pa- 
cific Company sought to have them ejected on the 
contention that their grant included every odd 
section through the whole reservation within the 
forty-mile limit. They claimed that the Gov- 
ernment had given the land to them in fee, hut 
subject to the Indian right of occupation, and 
that so soon as the Indians were removed the 
land was theirs to do with as they pleased. The 
Supreme Court had previously refused to permit 
the company to select from the additional two- 
mile strip— that is, the strip two miles in width 
beyond the forty-mile limit of their grant— cer- 
tain indemnity sections in place of other sections 
temporarily in u e by the Indians. The court 
held that the company had accepted their grant 
subject to the right of the Indians to hold such 
lands as were within their reservations so long as 
the reservations were closed, and that when they 
were opened the railroad could possess itself of its 
appropriate sections. This decision was cited to 
sustain the company’s claim that settlers could not 
file on the odd-numbered sections in the Crow 
lands. The Land Commissioner decided for the 
company. He saw no escape in view of the 
earlier holdings of the Supreme Court. He is 
certainly right. The Supreme Court was right. 
But, all the same, there is trouble ahead. This 
ruling holds that every odd section in the Crow 
lands belongs to the railroad. But the Govern- 
ment has been alloting odd sections to the Indians 
right along. It can’t give away the same land 
twice. It gave one fee to the railroad thirty years 
ago. It has given another to Indians in repeated 
instances during the last two years. It looks as 
if all that part of the allotment work would have 
to be done again L. E. Q. 


XX. 


MILITARY GARRISON LIFE. 


THE ARMY AND THE INDIAN RESERVATIONS. 


A. VISIT TO PORT CUSTEE AND THE LAND OP 
THE CROWS— DECADENCE OF THE FAR 
WESTERN STAGE COACH. 

Fort Custer, Montana, June 10. 

Throughout the Northwestern country there is 
a chain of military establishments which supply 
many interesting elements to life on the frontier. 
They grow more and more numerous as you 
journey toward the coast. They are generally 
placed upon some choice section of land, es- 
pecially reserved by the Government for military 
purposes, conveniently near an Indian country. 
From two to ten companies of infantry or troopa 
of cavalry ordinarily compose the station. It can- 
not be said that the soldiers have any considerable 
amount of serious work to do, though thdr pres- 
ence undoubtedly exercises a healthy influence as 
well upon the lawless white element which always 
accumulates around or within an Indian reser- 
vation as upon the red men themselves. They 
serve, too, to keep alive the nucleus of a regular 
army, which is certainly necessary, even if w& 
can’t get anybody to fight us or superinduce among 
ourselves a combative disposition. Until the Gov- 
ernment institutes a radical change in its Indian 
policy; until it pulverizes the tribal relation; 


44 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


until it stops throwing away millions of dollars 
annually in the support ox tne Indians, by far tne 
mot harmful feature of a policy which is wrong, 
anyhow, from start to finish; uutu it ceases to 
put a premium upon idleness ana immorality and 
thievery, the three occupations to whicu tue In- 
dians devote themselves; until it levels chiefs 
auu meuicine men, and untu it compels the lu- 
diaus to earn their own living, there will be no 
certainty of peace, and strong military establish- 
ments will be necessary. 

Fort Custer is a typical frontier post. It is in 
the centre of the Crow country, forty miles south 
of the Yellowstone, directly upon the Big Horn 
River and within a few miles of the dreadiul spot 
where Custer and his devoted band of 300 met 
death, hhe 25th day of this month will be the 
th.rteenth anniversary of that horrible massacre, 
and it is said that a party of Sioux are coming 
over to celebrate what all Indians consider tne 
most glorious event of their history by a war 
dance on the plain below the hill where Custer 
fell. This should not be tolerated for an instant. 
Nothing was done to punish the Sioux for the 
atrocities of 1376, and their wild and warlike 
character to-day is due in a great degree to the 
immunity they secured then. It enabled Gall, 
Rain-In-The-Face, John Grass, and Sitting Bull to 
encourage the spirit of hostility, to argue that the 
white man was afraid of them, and to strut around 
in feathers and paint ever since. It is true, in- 
deed, that the fiendish tribe w'hich committed this 
massacre, which scalped and cut to mincemeat 
and ate the entrails of Custer’s command, have 
been treated with vastly more consideration than 
the peaceable Indians, and their chiefs very 
naturally make much of this. They say to 
their young men : “ Stay with us. See what 

we did for you. We whipped the Great Father’s 
soldiers and forced him to give us lands and 
cattle and clothing and ponies and rations 
every week. If you go near the white men, they 
will send your children off to school, take away 
all but one of your wives, settle you on a farm 
and make you work like a mule. Shajl the In- 
dian work? Do you want to be squaws? Is 
the Sioux a cowardly Omaha or a Ponca dog? 
Let the Ponca work. Look at him. Look at the 
dirty Crow. They were friends with the white 
man. They dared not light the Great Father. 
Well, what now? They are on farms. They 
work. They w r ear coats. They have no such 
country as ours. If you would be a Ponca or a 
Crow, go with the white man.” This is the way 
they talk all the time, and they keep their young 
braves savage and defiant. 

The older chiefs know perfectly well that a war 
now would mean the destruction of their nation. 
They only seek to maintain their position and to 
bully tlie white man into continuing to support 
them. The danger is, if they are allowed to go 
on as they have been going (and every tendency of 
the Government’s policy to-day is to encourage 
them), that the young bucks will grow restive 
and demand a fight. They are already ugly. 
Some voung chief might spring up at any time, 
anxious to make a great reputation, and create 
a large-sized trouble. Such an incident actually 
occurred right here among these lazy Cro"-s only 
two years ago, when Hangs-Up-ITis-Tail, claiming 
that he could make a medicine which would wipe 
the white man out of existence, collected a party 
of braves and brought on a fight with the Fort 
Custer troops. If he had not been killed at the 
first fire, or if his bucks had been S : oux instead 
of Crows a bloody war would probably have 
arisen. The Western people express no little an- 
noyance that, their position and their vi"ws ar" so 
little appreciated and respected in th° East,. Tim 
various “Indian Rights” and “Indian Defence” 
associations of the East come in for a grem- deal 
of criticism. Tt is not- conceded that Western 
people are one whit less kindly disnes^d toward the 
red man nor one wh’t less concerned fnr his wel- 
fare than those of Boston and Philadelphia, and 


it is argued that before people undertake to con- 
trol measures and policies so important to West- 
ern development and safety, they ought to know 
what they are about. There is only one sentiment 
in this country, and that demands the opening of 
ail reservations ; the establishment of the Indian 
on land of his own, giving him every facility for 
its cultivation; the destruction of tribes and the 
gradual enlistment of the red race in the common 
duties and affairs of citizenship. This is held 
to be easily possible, hut not while those who 
hate the Indian, those who love him and those 
who are growing rich by selling the Government 
the supplies that now support him, are all labor- 
ing to keep him a beggar and a barbarian. 

You reach Fort Custer by a stage which runs 
from Custer Station on the Northern Pacific to 
Rock Creek on the Union Pacific, a distance of 
430 miles. This is one of the few important stage 
lines that have managed to survive the locomotive’s 
raids. Its route takes in the mountainous district 
of Northern Wyoming, where there are several 
large towns to which the railroads have not yet 
penetrated. It runs through the Crow country, 
the richest agricultural region of all Montana. 
There are a dozen “ bottoms” along the Big Horn 
and the Little Big Horn rivers of from 60,000 
to 100,000 acres in extent, rank with prairie veg- 
etation, where the grain of a nation might be 
grown, now all vacant and useless. Every one 
of them could be irrigated at an expense of less 
than 50 cents an acre. The stage drivers say that 
there are just such fertile bottoms along the Yel- 
lowstone and along all the mountain streams that 
course through the reservation in all directions. 
These drivers are odd Dicks. They are the old 
fellows who used to drive the Deadwood and 
Overland stages in the early days, and they keenly 
feel the humiliation of their present position. 
To he compelled after such a glorious past, after 
having driven six and eight, horse coaches through 
a land filled with gallant road agents, chivalrous 
horse-thieves and valiant Indians, after having 
been “ held up” a dozen times, after having been 
through “ mnssacrees,” lynchings. cowboy fights 
and all that,— now, in their old age, to come down 
to a miserable two-horse route through a settled 
country, is almost more than they can hear. They 
sit on their lofty seats gloomy and taciturn. They 
rarely smile or talk. You must, work hard if you 
hope to secure, their favor or engage them in con- 
versation. The only glimpse of sunlight they ever 
catch through the dun clouds that paper their 
sky is when a dude, an Englishman or a fussy old 
lady becomes their passenger. Then something 
like a smile touches up their darkly burned faces, 
and by the time such a passenger, or what, is left 
of him, lias reached his destination, they are 
almost cheerful. The stages have no springs. 
The cushions are stuffed with flint. The trail is 
st ony and crossed continually with sullies and deep 
buffalo trails. To one of these melancholy drivers, 
drawing his career to a disappointing close, noth- 
ing is so comforting as to shoot, a dudisli “ tender- 
foot” through the stage window upon a jag of 
rocks below. 

Observing that my driver was in a pensive 
humor, I said nothing more to him than was 
recessary to procure permission to sit “ up there” 
with him. We rode for twenty miles in dead 
silence, and at last when we neared the station 
at, which we were to obtain dinner and a change 
of horses, he turned to me and said : “ Pardner, I 

like you. When I first, see you I thort I didn’t. 
But I do. You’re the fust man that ever rid on 
the top o’ my coach that didn’t start fer to tell 
me that gol-derned story about ‘Hank’ Monk an’ 
Horace Greeley !” 

The ice was broken, and we continued fast 
friends to the end of the ride. At, the station we 
took in an elderly lady with crossed eyes, a purple 
parasol and a passion for telling the price of every- 
thing she had on. We had proceeded a scant mile 
on our journey when she stuck her head out of the 
window and screamed to the driver not to go so 


MONTANA, 


last, ’cause it slioolt the teeth “ right outen” her 
mouth, " and they cost ten shilling in Omaha.” 
When the Indian agency was reached the old lady 
and her teeth were in a great state of perturbation. 
Several hundred teepees covered the plain, for the 
Indians had gathered from all over the reservation 
to receive their rations, and they were having a 
grand dance and powwow. The Crow is an ex- 
ceedingly dressy Indian. lie wears the gaudiest 
of blankets, the widest fringes, the highest feath- 
ers. He paints profusely, and in many cases he 
is dressed richly in bears’ claws and elks’ teeth. 
The teeth of the elk are Indian money. Twenty- 
five will buy a pony. In their wildest toggery, 
all blazing with color, with circlets of brass, ivory, 
claws and lava around their necks arms and 
ankles, beating their tom toms furiously, and 
moaning a monotonous song, the dancers vaulted, 
ran, leaped and jumped in a weird and crazy 
ecstacy. Groups of Indians were squatted on the 
ground in a circle around them, nodding their 
heads solemnly, and occasionally giving vent to a 
crooning sound or a fierce yell. The greater chiefs 
sat at a distance from the dance, surrounded by 
their squaws and a few chosen followers, maintain- 
ing their dignity. Here and there fires were burn- 
ing furiously, heating a lot of stones upon which 
the medicine bowls were placed. None dared ap- 
proach these sacred spots save only the medicine 
men, in whose supernatural powers the Indians 
still firmly believe. On our route through the 
reservation we passed a number of trees, willows 
and cottonwoods, from almost every twig of which 
bits of gaudy cloth and ribbon were hanging. 
These are the medicine trees from whose leaves 
the medicine men are supposed to derive their 
high attributes. Each of the bowls was filled 
with herbs and leaves, and over them the most 
absurd incantations were being performed. 

An incident which shows how thoroughly super- 
stitious the Indians are even yet was furnished 
by our old lady passenger and her ten-shilling 
teeth. Having concluded her supper, she was 
standing at the door of the agency building, wait- 
ing for the stage. A score of Indians, bucks and 
squaws, were grouped around staring at her. Sud- 
denly she made a distressing grimace and dropped 
her teeth into her hands. The Indians gave a few 
startled grunts and flew. They ran like antelopes 
to their camp, and presently a great crowd of them 
advanced cautiously toward the agency. Halting 
at a respectful distance from the old lady, they 
regarded her -with, looks of wonder and alarm. 
They told the driver as he came up to beware of 
her, as she had “ heap medicine.” The Indian 
agents should be especially instructed from Wash- 
ington to do all in their power to correct this j 
“ medicine” superstition. The medicine men and 
the bad whites are at the bottom of all Indian 
troubles. They are incessantly at work, the one 
inflaming, the other provoldng. Agents should 
have the amplest powers to suppress and punish 
both. 

There is not much excitement about Army life 
on Western posts. Desertions on the part of 
soldiers occur every day. They complain bitterly 
against being employed as laborers. The most 
considerable part of their duty is to take care of 
the post property, to serve the officers as valets, 
to clean the parade grounds, to build new quarters 
and to perform menial work. They claim that 
this is not what they enlist for. Senator Plumb’s 
letter to the President, desiring the issuance of 
an amnesty proclamation in favor of deserters, is 
received by Army officers with some irritation. 
They say that Senator Plumb makes statements 
he cannot substantiate, a point probably well 
taken. His charge that the men are abused and 
not properly fed is certainly incorrect. _ On the 
contrary, they live well and are considerately 
treated. There is undoubted force in the claim, 
preferred by the men themselves, that they should 
not be called upon to perform acts of personal 
service to the officers and their families, though 
their other complaint against having to work as 
day laborers is open to discussion. To make de- 


45 


sertion easier and less perilous than it is now 
can hardly be the way to prevent it, however. 
The men ought to be relieved of those features 
of their work which are degrading to them as 
soldiers, the teim of enhstment should be shortened 
from live years to three, and a plan should be 
devised by which discontented spirits could reim- 
burse the Government for whatever expense it 
has incurred oa their account, and thus purchase 
their release. Those conditions provided, deser- 
tions should be heavily and swiftly punished, and 
a good round price be set on every deserter’s head. 

One great difficulty in enforcing disci pline in 
the Army, a difficulty that is especially felt on 
these Western posts, arises from the fact that the 
Articles of War, under which justice is admin- 
istered, are antiquated and inappropriate. They 
were formulated a century ago from the English 
articles and they need revision. They were made 
for the days when it was a great part of an of- 
ficer’s duty to be a tyrant, and when public 
opinion had no control of him. It is his highest 
duty now to be a gentleman, and, while there are 
prigs and snobs in the Army, as everywhere else, 
they are not dangerous. It still remains the rule 
that no soldier can be punished for any act what- 
ever except by the verdict of a court-martial. 
This makes an immense amount of fuss and red 
tape over breaches of discipline which are utterly 
petty, and yet necessary to be corrected if the 
army is to be an army. There were 25,000 of- 
fences against the military laws last year, and 
every one had to be tried by a court-martial. 
This rule, seemingly in the men’s interest, really 
tended against them, for thousands finally ad- 
judged innocent were subjected to long confine- 
ments, awaiting the action of the cumbersome 
machinery by which only they could be tried. 
Congress ought to arrange so that the command- 
ing officer at each post might have jurisdiction 
over trivial <. ff enccs. That is the rule everywhere 
except in our Army, and it appeals to common- 
sense. It would have a good effect upon the 
men. Its tendency would be to prevent many of 
those acts which render them so often a nuisance 
to the Western towns near which their p; sts lie. 
The Army will be needed in the West for mauy 
years, and, as the country becomes more and more 
thickly settled, its opportunities to annoy civilians 
will increase. There is a considerable friction 
now, and complaints against the soldiers are 
numerous. Since they can easily misbehave and 
escape the civil authorities, it should be made 
possible for their oflicers to keep them under con- 
trol. L - E - Q* 


XXL 


ACROSS THE WYOMING BOBBER. 

THE GREAT CATTLE RANGE OF THE NORTH- 
WEST. 


BUFFALO, A THRIVING- TOWN 160 MILES FROM 
ANY RAILROAD.— AGRICULTURAL AND 
MINERAL WEALTH OF THE SUR- 
ROUNDING COUNTRY. 

Buffalo, Wyoming Territory, June 13. 

What is known as “ the range,” or the cattle 
country— that part of the West which is suited 
to the feeding of sheep and cattle more than any 
other industry— includes the hilly region of Eastern 
Montana, the Bad Lands of Western Dakota, and 
the mountainous part of Northern Wyoming. Not 
that stock-raising is confined to this territory 
by any means. But here the range is wider and 
freer of interruption than it is elsewhere. Here 
the cattle require less attention than elsewhere. 
Here they are surer of protection in the winter 
than elsewhere. Here settlement has been less 


46 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


aggressive. In considering the cattle business 
and the present stage of its evolution, it is not 
possible to overlook the country within the boun- 
daries of which it is rapidly being confined. The 
relation of Northern Wyoming to Eastern Montana 
is, and ever must be, intimate, but it is particularly 
close to-day, when the range of the great herds 
is becoming contracted to the region watered by 
the Little Missouri, the Yellowstone and the 
streams that find their source in the Big Horn 
Mountains. 

It is conceded, even by the cattle men them- 
selves, that the day of the big herd is nearly over. 
The influx of settlers, thousands every year, has 
already contracted the range so seriously as to 
■cause much anxiety to the cattle “ outfite, lest 
the forage prove insufficient In South Dakota, 
where there are no great herds, one travels for 
hundreds of miles without seeing the first sug- 
gestion of a fence, even around the grain fields. 
But in this country the ranchmen sling barbed 
wire around their farms in order that the cattle 
may be kept upon the hills and unused land. 
Some part of the range will never be fit for agri- 
cultural purposes unless the rain belt moves this 
way, as many contend it is moving; but it will 
always grow buffalo grass and will always sup- 
port "cattle. It by no means follows, because 
of the change the cattle business is undergoing, 
that the supply of beef is diminishing. On the 
contrary, more cattle are owned and bred and 
fattened in the West than ever before ; but they 
are coming to be owned in small bunches by the 
ranchmen, and fed on the property of their indi- 
vidual owners, not by great “ outfits,” fattened 
on the range. Six years ago. during the “ round- 
up” season, from two to ten thousand cattle were 
“ rounded up” everyday. Now, 2,500 cattle make 
a large “ round-up,” and the usual number brought 
in day by day is less than 1,200. 

Northern Wyoming, however, will ever remain 
a cattle country. The people will always find 
the preparation of beef for the Eastern market 
one of their principal sources of wealth. They 
have just the sort of territory upon which two-year 
old steers can obtain the choicest living, just the 
climate suited to their perfect development. From 
the Montana line south for 100 miles and across 
the length and breadth of the Territory there is 
one unbroken succession of hills. Nowhere in the 
United States is there a region so continuously 
magnificent. It seems as if Nature’s wilder forces, 
after having played awhile on all the borders of 
Wyoming, after having engaged in frantic sport 
along the Little Missouri, after having run a mad 
chase up and down the Yellowstone, had here 
grown grandly passionate, and with more of 
motion and design than had before inspired them, 
it seems as if they had hurled themselves upon the 
resisting, but too feeble, earth and thrown it 
whither their fancy minded. Here and there they 
piled enormous mountain ranges, chiselling each 
particular peak so cleanly, but so fantastically, 
that it cuts its own startling figure against the 
sky. and shows in its formation an odder con- 
glomeration of figures than any human imagination 
can suggest. Between each of these great chains 
are thousands of acres of monster hills, with one, 
bigger than the rest, extending north and south 
on a line parallel with the course of the moun- 
tains. This is the “ divide,” srparating the waters 
that rise in one chain of mountains from those 
that rise in the other. There are hundreds of 
these beautiful mountain streams, and they are 
the salvation of the land. Every winter leaves 
the mountains deeply under snow, which, indeed, 
never leaves the highest of the Big Horn peaks. 
A great deal of moisture, enough to insure a 
yearly growth of grass, is left by the snow upon 
the hills, so that they need but little rain in 
the summer time to render the forage rich and 
abundant. The streams flow swiftly with a fall 
of twenty feet to the mile, and with 
a never-failing supply; for whenever there 
are clouds in the heavens, they accumulate over 


the mountains and deposit new burdens of snow 
every day or two, winter and summer. The 
valleys capable of bearing crops are numerous but 
small, for the rivers and creeks wind around the 
hills in every direction, forming rich pastures 
wherever they make a turn. 

This northern country is as yet to be reached 
only by stages travelling south from the Northern 
Pacific and north from the Union Pacific. Within 
the last four years settlers have come in rapidly 
and are filling all the little valleys and producing 
large crops of grain. Thousands of valuable 
ranches are still to be acquired under the Desert 
Land Act, and, of course, with mountain streams 
running everywhere and falling twenty feet to 
the mile, every one of the valleys, and not a few 
of the hills, may be readily irrigated and re- 
deemed. Buffalo is a city of nearly 2,000 in- 
habitants. It is 1 60 miles from the railroad, and 
is said to be the largest town in America at such 
a distance from connections. Everything the 
people wear, every article that furnishes their 
houses, and much that they eat. must be dragged 
by mule and bull teams all the way from Custer. 
The stages, going night and day, occupy thirty- 
six hours in the trip. Freight trains, of three or 
four wagons, drawn by horses and mules, consume 
from seven to ten days, and those drawn by oxen 
are often a full month on the way. Sheridan, 
a town nearly as large as Buffalo, lies on their 
route. That a railroad along these valleys would 
be profitable is well understood, and a company 
has been organized to build it. Its stock is owned 
principally in New-York City, and. there is no 
doubt that those having the enterprise in hand 
intend to put it through. They have done some 
surveying, and they hint that their rails will be 
laid as far along the Big Horn River as Fort 
Custer before winter closes in upon them. They 
are waiting, I suppose, to have the people sub- 
sidize them. That is the necessary preliminary 
to almost all enterprises, public and private, that 
require a considerable capital. It has been al- 
ready worked to death. It. has become an in- 
tolerable nuisance. All these new towns are, of 
course, anxious to get hold of business institutions 
that promise to employ labor anil become per- 
manent sources of wealth. Fully alive to this, 
when a man concludes to start something, no 
matter what, a brewery, a canning factory, an 
electric lighting plant, or anything else, he goes 
around among the various towns within the region 
where he contemplates settling, and asks the 
townspeople what bonus they will g-ive him if he 
stops with them. They don’t have to give him 
anything if they don’t want to. but they know 
perfectly well that some other town wilL if they 
refuse, and the other town will secure a new 
industry. So, as the thing works, each town 
makes its bid, then there is more or less raising, 
and finally the enterprise goes to the place which 
pays the most to get it. The man who haggles 
shrewdly can often secure as much as 25 per cent 
of the cost of his plant. 

Northern Wyoming has been only superficially 
surveyed. Until within ten years practically 
nothing was known of it. Since then prospectors 
and surveyors have given some little attention 
to its rivers and hills, and they have discovered 
enough to convince those who understand natural 
signs and marks that its mineral wealth is 
enormous. For fifty miles on either side of 
Powder River the soil covers a bed of coal that 
ages can scarcely make an impression upon. It 
has been carefully investigated at various points 
and a mine is in operation here. The coal is 
hard and firm, of the so-called lignite variety, but 
superior in quality to that found in Northwestern 
Dakota. Iron, copper, silver and gold have been 
found in the Big Horn Mountains and along the 
Continental Divide. Directly across the State, 
running northeast and southwest, an oil belt has 
been discovered which yields petroleum almost 
as surely and plentifully' as the Jim River Valley 
of Dakota yields water. In a score of places 
large areas are found where the oil comes un- 
failingly. What can be shown when first-class 


MONTANA. 


47 


machinery is put at work in these mountains can 
only be surmised now. To no part of the North- 
west has less intelligent study been given. Cer- 
tainly no part oilers a more promising and at- 
tractive field. 

L. E. Q. 


XXII. 


IN THE CATTLE COUNTRY . 


FEATURES OF LIFE AMONG TIIE COW- 
PUN CIIERS OF WYOMING. 


A ROUND-UP— VARIOUS USES OF NERVE-WYOM- 
ING’S AMBITION FOR STATEHOD-CIVILI- 
ZATION AMONG THE BIG HORNS. 

Buffalo, Wyoming Territory, June 15 . 

The round-up is an institution by itself. If 
anything can be said to be peculiar to the country 
in which it occurs, the round-up is that sort of 
thing. If you have never seen it. you have never 
seen anything like it. There is nothing with which 
I can compare a spectacle made up of a great herd 
of cattle, dazed and bewildered, massed together 
in one big bunch, bellowing and moaning, beseech- 
ing and defying, incessantly moving, but nerer 
progressing; of smaller herds, cut out from among 
the great one, tranquilly grazing, as if they under- 
stood that they were now, at least, to have rest, a 
dream too soon dispelled; of herds of horses, 
white, black, spotted, kind, surly, vicious, hand- 
some and mean, corralled here, at liberty there 
and bunched yonder; of men mounted on flyers 
dashing in among the cattle and chasing this 
one in tLat direction and that one in this, or 
tearing at a bieakneclc speed over the prairie after 
a st raj' steer or heifer, hooting and howling, and 
suddenly lurching forward while a rope cuts the 
air and the runaway falls captive to the ground ; 
of a horseman, quicker and surer than the others, 
darting this way and that, and fetching to the 
camp-fire, near by, a poor little calf caught by its 
neck or its leg and dragged over the ground at 
the end of the lasso, while its mother, sometimes 
forlorn, sometimes bewildered, but always crying 
piteously, follows in helpless misery; of a group 
of men, armed with knives and branding-irons, 
who snatch the poor little creature, toss it heavily, 
but not always without a bard struggle, to the 
ground, cut it with one quick stroke of the 
knife, and press upon its skin the heated iron. 
These are a few of the many curious features of 
a scene which, for animation and picturesque- 
ness, probablj r lias no parallel. It begins with 
the first pencil of the morning sun that appears 
over the mountain. It ends when the last pencil 
is withdrawn and the dark envelope of night is 
sealed. 

The cow-punchers— you call them cowboys in 
the East, but that is an expression long since 
abandoned here — are a fine and vigorous lot of 
young fellows. Some are educated men, bachelors 
of arts, who have been attracted hither by a spirit 


of adventure, a liking for the open air, or a 
desire to occupy themselves better than by lolling 
around home. Some are men with a record and 
a variety of names, who did something somewhere 
that rendered their then surroundings disagreeably 
warm for them. They say their name is Smith, or 
Jones, or Biown, and Smith, or Jones, or Brown, is 
the name you want to be particularly careful to 
call them by. If you should happen to have come 
from their former neighborhood, and should fancy 
their name was Robinson, or Thompson, or 
Wiggins, and should call them so, they wouldn’t 
like it. Smaller incidents than that have brought 
about grave misunderstandings. Some are dare- 
devils, who wouldn’t do any particular harm to 
themselves or anybody else, but who like to be 
just on the edge of peril. And some are the same 
old humdrum, commonplace fellows you see every- 
where, who are “ punching” cows largely because 
they are not doing something else. They are 
I all young, all full of strength and resolution, 
all ready to fight if you are really anxious for a 
fight, all hearty, generous and brave. Cow- 
punching is no business for a sneak, or a coward 
or a stingy soul. Those kinds are not attracted 
to it. No man can live and do in the open air, 
with a wilderness for his workshop, the stars for 
his coverlet, the wild flowers for his pillow, and 
be a dastard. But if exceptions occur to prove 
the rule, something always happens to them. 
They leave, or get lost, or— something. What? 
Oh, don’t ask questions! 

I have already said many a time that the 
reign of disorder is over in the West, and I want 
to impress that fact on everybody’s mind. But 
still, the man who keeps his pistol on the half- 
cock can always find as big a gun as his just 
as much disposed to go off. The tiger is under 
cover. But if you want to stroke him, you can 
easily get the cover removed. There is a host of 
men in these parts who are leading quiet, respect- 
able lives who did not use to be so respectable 
and quiet. They came to the West when it was 
the fashion to shoot a man if you didn't like the 
cut of his coat or thought his grammar too good. 
Being at Rome they did as the Romans did. But 
as custom changed they have considerably changed 
with it. Their blood still runs briskly^, however, 
and you don’t want to swear at them unnecessarily. 
Though they rarely talk about it, they are quite 
proud of their earlier career, and like to have 
it understood that once upon a time they were 
ba-ad men. One day last week a big, rough- 
looking fellow entered a Pullman car and began 
to smoke and sing vulgar songs. The colored 
porter begged him to desist, but he shouted back 
that he would smoke where he pleased and sing 
what he pleased, and no blamed nigger could 
stop him. An elderly gentleman sitting near 
called the porter aside and asked him if he knew 
the express agent in the forward car. 

“ Yes. *ah,” answered the porter, “ I dous, sah; 
name o’ Marshall, sah.” 

“ Well, you give him this card, and tell him 
to come here immediately.” 

The porter went off, and presently a robust, 
heavy, thick-set fellow entered, glanced about 
the car, perceived the elderly man, and came 
forward. 


48 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTH WES']'. 


“ Do you remember me ?” said the elderly man. 

“ I guess so,” was the rather hesitating asswer. 

“ Aren’t you sure ?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Do you see that fellow yonder, yelling and 
smoking ?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Can you get, away wi th him ?” 

“ I ain’t fearful to try.” 

“ Put him in the smoking car.” 

The robust fellow promptly went over to where 
the rough was sitting, and said : “ Pardner, you’ve 
got to get out of here. I’m told to put you out. 
Fightin’s right in my line, if you 'say fight. I 
don’t want no trouble, but it all lays with you. 
Come, now, git I” 

For a moment there were signs of a battle, but 
in another moment the rough thought belter of 
it, and meekly allowed himself to be led away. 
The robust fellow returned and reported that it 
was all right. 

“You’ve lost none of your nerve since I saw 
you last,” remarked the elderly man. 

Marshall smiled all over. “ I guess I’m some 
account yet, sir,” he replied. “ I hope your 
knowin’ me ain’t going to lose me my job?” 

“Oh, no. Take care of yourself: that’s all.” 

Marshall retired. Another traveller, speaking 
to the elderly man, observed that the express 
agent, looked like a good fighter. 

“ Good ? I should say so. I knew him in the 
Black Hills, years ago, when I was sheriff there. 
He was punching cows. He has killed his man 
several times. Didu’t it tickle him when I told 
him he hadn’t lost his nerve ?” 

Nerve is one of the first qualities in the cowboy 
composition. It takes nerve to ride a horse as 
they ride. A trained cow-pony adapts his move- 
ments to those of the beast he is chasing. When 
the steer stops, he stops. And he stops so sud- 
denly that his rider is in great danger of going on. 
When the steer turns, turns. He does whatever 
the steer does until he sees the rope encircling 
the neck or the ankle of tlm fugitive beast, and 
then he plants his hoofs in the ground and holds 
fast. Many a brave rider has lost his life in 
this exciting chase, for a Texan steer can do 
a variety of unpleasant, things with those long, 
curved horns of his, things that only a bold 
hand and a quick mind ca‘n escape. 

The round-up is a moving tournament. It pro- 
ceeds, day by day, through the country, collecting 
the cattle from mountain and gulch, from canon 
and valley, from plain and plateau into a given 
retreat. The cattle country is divided into dis- 
tricts, and the round-up goes on simultaneously 
in each district. Each of the cattle establishments, 
or “ outfits,” has a representative at the round-up 
to look after its interests, to see that its calves 
are properly branded, and to sort out its fat 
steers for the market. The cowboys start upon 
their hunt at about 3 o’clock in the morning, 
parcelling among themselves the country to be 
searched, and by 9 or 10 o’clock they have com- 
pleted their travels, and have come together 
in the spot appointed for the round-up, driving 
before them all the cattle they have found. The 
percentage that escapes them is very small. Their 
eyes are trained to sweep mountains and explore 
gulches. They lmow just where the cattle go. 
When all have come in and the cattle are bunched, 
the “ cutting out” begins. Riders go into the 
herd and chva.se out, the cows and calves belonging 
to their outfit. These are herded in small groups 
here and there on the prairie, closely guarded 
by cowboys. When none but, steers remain in 
the big bunch, those ready to be sold for beef 
are cut, out, and the rest, turned loose into the 
hills again. Then the branding process is begun 
upon the calves, and that accomplished, tlm 
round-up is over. The same routine is repeated 
until the entire range has be^u thoroughlv searehed 
and each outfit has dealt with its cattle according 
to i+s owm plans and purposes. 

It. must be said for the cattle men that they 


use a country well. They have brought much 
wealth into Montana and Wyoming, and it seems 
hard to see them slowly driven from the land 
they have made great and prosperous. But every 
day contracts their domain, and if the business 
is to be continued at all there must soon be a 
complete pooling of interests on the part oi the 
principal outfits. In no other way can they profit- 
ably avail themselves even of the comparatively 
limited range they have left. 

We shall soon have another new State in Wy- 
oming. The people now number 75,000, and they 
think their chance lies with a Republican Admin- 
istration. The President has acted with great 
wisdom in the appointments he has made. Gov- 
ernor Warren is an old resident, a man of high 
character, some wealth and great popularity. He 
is talcing hold of the Statehood movement with 
vigor, and as he knows the country thoroughly, he 
is sure to make progress in that ambition. There 
are 62,500,000 acres in the Territory. Timber 
covers 10,000,000, and probably 17,000,000 may 
be profitably cultivated. The rest is the range, 
though abundant sources of mineral and other 
wealth have been found all over the State, and 
will in time be developed. At least fifty millions 
of money are invested in stock. The sheep in- 
dustry is steadily moving forward. You cannot 
imagine how quickly and widely stimulating was 
the effect of the last National election upon this 
great business. The result had not been known 
a day before the sheep-growers began to expa-nd 
all their relations. So long as the Mills bill 
hung over them, like a cloud on the mountains, 
they drew in their investments and prepared, in 
the event of Cleveland’s re-election, to quit busi- 
ness. Now they are spending money liberally. 
Their herds are growing, and theirs is becoming 
foremost among the stock interests of the North- 
west. 

From the country of which this city is the 
centre 20,000 beeves were shipped to the East 
in 1888. Whatever may be the changes that will 
take place in the cattleman’s methods of business, 
this will be their favored region for all time. 
When the range is improved and properly irri- 
gated, from 75,000 to 100,000 cattle can bo 
sustained upon it. Farming on the river bottoms, 
which include nearly a million acres of first-class 
land, has been prosecuted with just such rich 
returns as I have so often described in these let- 
ters. This is becoming an old story, and yet I 
love to dwell upon it, for no single success to 
which the American people have attained is more 
significant than their magic reclamation of these 
arid wastes. They may well be proud of the 
way they have compelled the very elements that 
rendered this whole country useless to turn around 
again and make it sweet and green with growing 
crops. 

There are about 1.800 people in Buffalo. 
Wrapped in the giant arms of the Big Horn 
Rockies, far away from the locomotive’s route, 
they are nevertheless full of activity. They have 
a city of strong men and fine women. Electricity 
lights their houses and streets and connects them 
with the world. Uncle Sam fetches them two 
mails a day. They make their own flour, cut 
their own timber, bake their own briclts, and dig 
out their own fuel. They ask you it you have 
seen the latest “Century Magazine,” and what you 
think of Mr. Gladstone’s last tussle with I’ro- 
fessor Huxley. Their children study chemistry 
and botany and physiology, and grow warm over 
logarithms just as the children in Boston do. And 
their mountains 1 You have never seen heights 
and depths, precipices and surging brooks, blue 
sky, bright sum, green grass, white snow, and 
more than all, you have never seen wild flowers 
tinted and shaped as nature can tint them and 



L. E. Q. 


MONTANA. 


4* 


XXIII. 


OPENINGS FOIi SETTLERS. 


MECHANICS, DAY LABORERS AND HOUSE- 
HOLD SERVANTS WANTED. 


TIIE PROMISING- FUTURE OF LIVINGSTON- 

HEADQUARTERS OF THE YELLOWSTONE — A 
LAND OF MINERAL WEALTH. 

Livingston, Montana, June 18. 

It is not only to the class of people who have 
money enough to establish themselves in some 
sort of business that the Northwest is attractive. 
There are excellent opportunities, especially in 
Montana, for mechanics and day laborers. Wages 
are remarkably high. This is due to two cir- 
cumstances particularly. Originally it was due 
solely to the fact that the country was new. 
Living was expensive. Ordinary table board— 
the most ordinary indeed— could not be had for 
less than §12 a week. Everything else was 
proportionately extravagant in price. Laboring 
men had to be brought from comfortable homes 
in the East, where their children were ottered 
school advantages, to endure the privations and 
the heavy expenses of the wilderness, and men 
who wanted them had to make it worth their 
while to come. But this is a situation common 
to all new countries, and usually it does not 
continue after the locomotive’s approach. In 
Montana, however, wages are nearly as high «ts 
they ever were, while the cost of living has fallen 
almost to the Eastern level. The reasons are 
these : There is no distinct body of laborers here, 
in the first place, upon which employers can draw 
as they find occasion, and, in the second, the 
miners set the standard of wages, and are able 
by their numerical strength to control the situa- 
tion. They are well organized, and being in a 
land where everybody is doing reasonably well, 
and where their employers are generally rich, they 
have the sympathy of the people m their demands. 
They receive $3 50 a day, and will not work for 
less. Nobody wants to see them work for less, 
except possibly those who employ them, and 
popular sentiment avows that men who are 
making millions by hiring other men to dig 
a hole in the ground ought to be willing to pay 
well for the digging. The reprehensible methods 
which are frequently employed by the Miners’ 
Union to enforce their demand that no one shall 
work for less than S3 50 are therefore regarded 
with a tolerant spirit. I was visiting a mine 
the other day where $3 25 was being paid, and 
while the superintendent was showing me around 
he was summoned to appear above ground by a 
crowd of nearly 100 men. They do not use the 
walking delegate and the grand master workman 
out here. The men do their own bossing and run 
their own machine. They informed the superin- 
tendent that they knew he was paying his men 
less money than was allowable under the rules 
of the camp. He tried to parley, but they said 
he might as well “ break to them,” by which they 
meant confess and atone. He finally said he took 
his orders from the company, which was unwilling 
to pay more than $3 25, but the men were free 
agents, and didn’t have to work for that if they 
didn’t want to. How free the agents were was 
presently made manifest. They were all called | 


above ground and were told that the camp would 
not allow them to work for less than the regular 
rate. The men yielded and abandoned their job 
promptly, 'they had no particular objection to 
receive the higher rate. They knew the company 
would be compelled to re-engage them at the 
higher rate, and they knew that a summary cow- 
hiding and persecutions innumerable thereafter 
would be the inevitable consequence of their 
opposing the union. 

The moral effect of these conditions is to keep 
up all lands of wages. The lowest rate paid 
for day labor is §2 25. As much as $3 is paid 
to intelligent workmen, while skilled mechanics, 
men who have learned a trade and are competent 
receive from §4 50 to §10 per day. It seems odd 
under these circumstances that there should bo 
so few artisans among the permanent population. 
If a man wants to start a mill or other manu- 
factory he has to run off to Chicago or New-York 
to get his men. A surplus of labor is easily 
created, and I would not give the impression that 
every dissatisfied workingman in the East can 
come out here and straightway grow rich, but, 
on the other hand, there are unquestionably ex- 
cellent opportunities in Montana for skilled labor- 
ers, and the demand as yet is far Irom satisfied. 
The best plan for persons to pursue who think of 
migrating hitherward, but are unable to come out 
and look around for themselves, is to write to 
the mayor or the postmaster of such towns as 
their fancy favors, stating their situation, what 
they have and what they want. They may feel 
sure of a sympathetic reply. 

Perhaps the demand for domestic servants is as 
generally unsatisfied in the Northwest as any 
other. I have yet to visit the happy, happy land 
where the servant-girl problem does not exist as 
the principal source of domestic gloom, but here 
it is certainly to be found at its worst. It is 
utterly impossible to keep a girl.” The female 
half of the population, while large and growing, 
is still in a considerable measure the smaller half, 
and young women of every degree arc quoted 
at far more than they would fetch east of tho 
Alleghanies. This remark may not be gallant, 
and yet it ought to be valuable to such young 
women in the East as feel themselves un- 
appreciated. The cases are counted in hundreds 
where a girl has entered a family as a cook or 
chambermaid and has thereafter remained as a» 
daughter-in-law. It is highly unprofitable to 
fetch girls from Eastern cities. If they are worth 
their salt they go off and get married often beforo 
they have earned the price of their railway fare. 
Servants’ wages are 100 per cent higher in Mon- 
tana than in New-York. The cooks on the rail- 
way dining cars receive §60 a month. In private 
families $30 is the lowest wages offered, and 
some are paid as much as $100. The girl experi- 
ment is so generally unsatisfactory that many 
families employ negro men and Chinamen. Tho 
way to get a Chinaman is to tell another China- 
man you want one. He will spare you all the 
trouble and expense of dealing with an employ- 
ment agency. An officer at Fort Custer who had 
imported girl after girl only to have them come 
to him within a month or two and simper out 
that they were going to get married, was at last 
advised by a friend to procure a Mongolian. 
“ I have one,” said the friend, “ and he is a perfect 
jewel. If you like, I’ll tell him to find one for 
you.” The officer gladly consented, and in tho 
course of a day or two, when his wife went to 
the kitchen to prepare dinner, she found a China- 
man, cue-ed and white-vested, already at work 
among the pots and pans. She cheerfully retired 
in his favor. About a week later, when the officer 
and his wife sat down to dinner, they observed 
that the heathen in attendance upon them was 
not the heathen who had been serving them for 
the past week, but an entirely new and different 
one. They also observed that the dinner before 
them was much superior to the dinners their late 
heathen had supplied. They presently inquired 


50 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


of their new heathen what had become of their 
old one. 

“ He no good,” answered John. “ He some 
washee, but he no cookee. Wing Ting tells him 
go and say me come ! ” 

Wing Ting, it appeared, was the heathen be- 
longing to their friend. 

Livingston is chiefly known as the station on 
the Northern Pacific where tourists to the Yellow- 
stone Park leave the main line for the Cinnabar J 
branch. The town was started, indeed, to facili- 
tate the journeyings of tourists. But it soon 
came to have a higher purpose than that. The 
country about Livingston is not a firsLclass 
farming country. There are a number of “ bot- 
toms” along the Yellowstone and Shields Rivers 
where ranchmen are growing substantial crop-, 
but, for the most part, the land is too grand and 
imposing to submit to ploughs and harrows. 
When one gets within seventy-five miles of the 
Parle, no matter from what side or angle his ap- 
proach is made, he begins to see sights. The 
mountains grow higher, haughtier, bolder. They 
throw their noble heads aloft -with a distinctly 
aristocratic manner, as if they belonged to a family 
of natural wonders which held itself in much 
esteem. The rivers flow with a quicker motion, 
and the waters that grow so muddy and dis- 
reputable as they near the Missouri are here all 
bright and pellucid, and they sparkle gayly as 
they spin and whirl and dash and jump along. 
The rocks, too, have a rugged aspect. They 
lift themselves in gigantic columns directly up- 
wards from the plain. They form grottoes and 
parks, fortresses and cathedrals. 

Farming is thus rendered neither easy nor 
profitable, but within the last six years, pros- 
pectors and miners have found what promises to 
make Livingston one of the largest, wealthiest 
and busiest towns in Montana. If its founders 
had foreseen its destiny they could not have 
laced it more fortunately. It stands on a 
eautifully sloping plain. Mountains rise north 
of it. Mountains rise south of it. Mountains 
rise east and west, l'ou see their snow-crowneif 
heights whichever way you look. They seem to 
be just a step or two away, just the proper dis- 
tance for a little walk before breakfast, but in 
this country you mustn’t measure distance or 
define shape by your eyes. Nothing is really as 
it looks to be. If it seems near, make sure it is 
far. If it seems far. calculate that it, is farther 
still. If it seems level, look out for heights and 
depths, coteaux and coulees. If it seems round, 
conclude it is an octagon. They tell of an Eng- 
lish tourist who, with his guide, came upon a 
little irrigating ditch. He sat down, pulled off his 
shoes and 6tocldngs and began to roll up his 
trousers. To the astonished guide’s inquiry what 
he was doing, the Englishman replied he was 
malting ready to wade the river. The guide as- 
sured him he could jump it. “ Aw, yes said the 
cautious tourist, contemplating the ditch with the 
air of a man whom experience had made wise, 

“ it looks so, but the blawsted thing may be three 
miles wide for all I Imowl” This is not such an 
exaggerated illustration of the fact that your 
eyes are not to be depended on as one might 
think. 

Through a canon, just south of Livingston, the 
Yellowstone springs from its mountain buttress. 

It has been running north from the glittering lake 
that supplies its rare and curious waters, waters 
that makes agates of dull stones and adamant of 
wood. Now it heads to the east and rushes on, 
eager and impetuous, through a valley that fur- 
nishes the finest examples of natural terraces to 
be found in any continent. At first, the rivpr, 
locked by mountain walls, with little room for 
action, has simply cut deep channels, but once 
unrestrained it has spread over miles of prairie 
which, as the ages drew along, it formed into 
bench after bench, leaving on them all. but more 
especially on the highest ones, rich deposits of 


fossil-bearing rocks. Between Glendive and Miles 
City the hills and buttes for twenty miles on 
either side the river are filled with fossilifsrous 
stones. Leaf impressions, fish impressions, and all 
the ancient forms of shell fish are found in profu- 
sion. The fossils retain their painty rainbow hues 
and show their cellular construction as perfectly as 
they did when they swam about in the Yellow- 
stone a million years ago, the Yellowstone that 
then stretched across the country from five to 
twenty miles. 

If any faith is to be put in signs, Livingston, 
thus picturesquely placed, will soon be one of the 
greatest ore markets in the woild, and a centre 
for the most extensive smelting and reduction 
operations. About 100 miles southeast of the 
city is a chain of hills 8,000 feet in e.evation, a 
spur of the Rockies, where mineral wealth of 
startling proportions has been found. The min- 
ing camp is called Cooke City, and as many as 
2,000 claims have been staked out within an area 
of fifteen miles. The promoters of mining com- 
panies are not always the most trustworthy sort of 
people, and yet the evidence is abundant and 
reasonably credible that this camp is full of gold, 
silver, lead and iron, and many disinterested per- 
sons believe it destined to become a greater camp 
than Butte. Why not? Nothing that can be 
claimed for the mountains of Montana is unbe- 
lievable after one examines the record of what 
has been achieved in them. The mineral 
product of last year amounted to 342.000,000 
It has increased steadily year by year 

since gold was first found at Virginia City. Thou- 
sands of claims well known to be rich are lying 
idle to-day only because they are too far from the 
railroads to be profitably worked. That is the 
trouble with Cooke City. Its mines were discov- 
ered fifteen years ago, but their development has 
occurred only within the last eight months, and 
the only thing that can now be done is to pile up 
the ore and wait for the railroad. I examined 
some thirty or forty assays, made by the United 
States assayers, of specimen tons of ore irom these 
mines, and they ran in value all the way from 
335 to S600. One sample contained S448. 80 in 
silver, 3192 in gold and 321 56 in lead. The poorest 
sample from that mine was worth $329. The mines 
are so situated physically as to be exceedingly diffi- 
cult of approach. The chief engineer of the 
Northern Pacific is now making a personal exam- 
ination of three routes, but ho has small hop’s of 
being able to surmount the difficulties that lie in 
the way of railroad construction over two of them. 
The other one. which is undoubtedly feasible/ lies 
along the east fork of the Yellowstone, but' it 
passes tlnough the northern limit of the Yellow stone 
Park. An effort was made last year, and wifi be 
renewed this winter, to induce Congress to render 
the development of these mines possible bv making 
the Yellowstone and Soda Butte Creek the north- 
ern boundaries of the Park. This would cut from 
the Park a strip six miles wide, said to contain no 
geological or topographical formations of interest. 
How far these representations are accurate. I do 
not know, but the matter is now being investi- 
gated by a Government surveying party. 

The mountains around Livingston are full of 
coal. An immense field of bituminous coal at Red 
Lodge is reached hy a branch line of the Northern 
Pacific, and is being profitably operated on a large 
scale. Near Cinnabar a coal has been found which 
cokes readily, and similar mines are now in opera- 
tion a few miles west of this city. The output 
here already reaches 200 tons a day. The discov- 
ery of this coking coal has been of incalculable 
value to Montana. The smelters at Helena and 
Butte, which formerly had to bring their coke all 
the way from Pennsylvania, are now supplied from 
this city. They use the Livingston coke entirely. 
The railroad uses the coal, so that every ton mined 
has an immediate market. The cost of reducing 
ore has been lessened nearly 20 per cent, and a 
further reduction will be made as soon as the 


MONTANA. 


51 


coking furnaces now being built here and at Cin- 
nabar are finished. These coal mines render Liv- 
ingston the best point in Montana for smelting 
and reducing ores. The mountains are full of 
silica and lime and everything else necessary to 
turn a quartz rock into a bar of pure metal. On 
the whole, I know of no place in all the N orthwest 
whose future is more safely assured than this 
bright and beautiful little city. 

L. E. Q. 


XXIV. 


IRRIGATION. 


MAKING DESEKT LANDS FERTILE BY ARTI- 
FICIAL WATERING. 

<JOOD WORK OF EAR I. Y EXPLORERS— THE THREE 
FORKS OF THE MISSOURI— A PROBLEM 
FOR THE GOVERNMENT. 

Bozeman, Montana, June 24. 

When Lewis and Clarke, the great Missouri 
River explorers, whom President Jefferson in 1803 
sent out to examine his new Louisiana purchase, 
had followed the Missouri from St. Louis to 
a point about thirty miles northwest of this city, 
they found themselves confronted by a diffi- 
cult problem. The main river spread in three 
different directions, forming three forks equal in 
width, in depth, in force of current, and in flow 
of water. Which was the real Missouri they were 
wholly unable to say, though many days were 
spent in tracing each fork and no effort spared to 
reach a sound conclusion. It was plain that all 
three were pure mountain streams, deriving their 
waters from the snows and springs of the Rockies. 
They flowed swiftly over shallow, pebbly bottoms 
through a valley country of surprising beauty and 
fertility. To the west of the westernmost fork 
rose the mighty peaks of the main Rocky range. 
To the east of the easternmost fork rose a collat- 
eral chain crowned with snows that have never 
disappeared. And between each fork ran other 
hills, lower than the bounding ones, but formid- 
able still, giving to each its separate valley and its 
separate mountain sources. The explorers could 
see but one possible way out of their difficulty. 
They decided that amy of these forks was as 
much entitled as the others to be called the Mis- 
souri, and that they were equally the source of 
that splendid river. So they named the west fork 
after the President, the middle one after the Secre- 
tary of State, Mr. Madison, and the east fork after 
the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Gallatin. 

As usual, the exploiters were correct in their 
judgment. It is remarkable how sagacious and 
accurate were the conclusions of these men who 
first gave actual form to the map of the North- 
west. They travelled through 5,000 miles of 
territory known, so far as the white race was con- 
cerned, to scarcely more than a dozen traders and 
hunters. They endured indescribable hardships, 
but they never lost heart or purpose. Their de- 
scription of the country is almost as clear and 
correct as if it had been written in the light of all 
that is known to-day, and scarcely any essential 
correction has needed to be made in the chart they 
•drew. 

In many respects the little area drained by the 
three forks has proved the richest and most valua- 


ble portion of the entire region that came under 
their observation. It contains the gulch from 
which the first teaspoomful of golden particles 
ever found in Montana was washed, and the far 
more famous gulch that added sixty millions in 
six years to the world’s currency. It contains 
other mineral lands that have been and are yet 
of vast importance to the country, supplying im- 
mense quantities of silver, iron, lead and copper. 
Its eastern section along the Gallatin River, from 
which I now write, has been quite fitly styled the 
granary of Montana. The Gallatin Valley is 
thirty-five miles long and twelve wide, and is 
devoted to agriculture more generally and with 
more system than any other valley in the Terri- 
tory Being close by the great mining camps, to 
which everything that was eaten had to be sup- 
plied, it was afforded a sure market for all it 
could produce, and farmers undertook to redeem 
the land at an early period. Their success was 
phenomenal from the start. It has been phenom- 
enal ever since. The Gallatin itself and all its 
tributary creeks and branches came scampering 
down the mountains with such force that the task 
of irrigating the valley was reduced to simple pro- 
portions. It was necessary only to run a plough 
furrow from the river across the bench-lands into 
the valley anywhere you chose, and the water 
would get there as soon as the plough. There is 
claimed to tie a difference in the soil here from 
that, along the Yellowstone, the Missoula or the 
Milk rivers, and certainly more closely than the 
soil elsewhere it resembles the black loam 
of the Dakotas. But it has been suffi- 
ciently proved that the valley lands any- 
where in Montana are susceptible of satisfaetory 
cultivation, if only they can be irrigated. There 
is no physical difficulty that cannot be easily over- 
come. The whok State is cut up into valleys, 
each distinct, each with its own streams. But 
to get water from these streams wherever farming 
could be profitably employed would require so 
extensive an artificial waterway that no private 
firm or corporation could possibly within the 
present generation construct it. It is generally 
estimated that two-fifths of the surface of Mon- 
tana is agricultural land, but scarcely one- 
twentieth can be handled to any profit by such a 
diversion of mountain creeks as the ordinary 
rancher can himself undertake, and even if he 
were able to turn the water wherever he wanted 
it, the flow is insufficient during the irrigating 
season, which continues only about ninety days 
during the year, to supply any considerable part 
of the country. The water begins to flow about 
March 1, and! it runs till late in December, but 
from May till August, while irrigation is needed, 
not more than a tenth of the annual supply is 
flowing. 

The difficulties in the way of general irriga- 
tion, then, are these : First, the water cannot be 
got by ordinary methods and contrivances, such 
as farmers of limited means can apply, upon at 
least nine-tenths of the good land ; and, second, 
even if it could be got there, the flow during the 
irrigating season is insufficient to supply the 
requisite moisture. And yet there are means by 
which the water could be got there and means 
by which the flow could be made adequate. What 
is needed is a general system of canals and 
reservoirs. The agricultural possibilities of the 
lands I have seen can scarcely be comprehended, 
much less reduced to figures, if only such a 
judicious system of storage to hold in reserve the 
full annual flow and of canals to pour it through 
during the irrigating season were in operation. 

Local funds have been to a considerable ex- 
tent employed in the construction of such canals. 
I told you of one that encircles the Yellow'stone 
Valley at Billings. Another is being completed 
here, and will be in use next year. But the 
undertaking when applied to the entire territory 
is so huge and costly that even if there were 
people with sufficient courage and capital to put 
it through, its completion would necessarily be 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


at a period too remote for us and ours to feel 
much interest in it. If the development of this 
country is to continue as it has recently been 
going on, and as its resources demand, the inter- 
vention of some greater and stronger agency must 
be afforded. 

The Montana people urge that the general Gov- 
ernment should do this work in its own interest. 
Under the Enabling Act, by which this Territory 
is converted into a State, the Government cedes 
to State control only that part of its domain 
which has been taken by settlers. The untaken 
portion still belongs to the United States, and is 
still subject to the rule of the Land Office at 
Washington. But, say the Montana people, no- 
body will buy it as things are. Nobody wants 
land he can’t use. It is all a desert till you can 
get water on it. Put the water there, and it will 
sell as fast as the Land Office can issue patents. 
Moreover, the Government can easily repay itself 
for the investment. It could add to the purchase 
price of each piece of land thus reclaimed its ap- 
propriate share of the general expenditure. 

There are many arguments in support of this 
proposition. Congress is now endeavoring to get 
at the facts in the case. A committee of the 
Senate is now journeying through the desert 
belt, listening to wliat people have to say on the 
subject, examining the whole territory that would 
be involved in the scheme, studying the practical 
results obtained thus far from irrigation, and en- 
deavoring to get at the probable cost of the 
enterprise. A survey is now being conducted in 
Montana by competent engineers employed by 
the Government, which is intended to furnish 
the same sort of information. As to the general 

S osition that lands utterly worthless have been 
e of the highest value, I have seen 
and reported convincing proofs, and these lands 
are said by trustworthy people to be really in- 
ferior to much of the soil that 

cannot now be reached by water. E or 

instance, it is claimed that the “ first bottoms 
that is, the lands directly bordering on the 
streams, though usually, are not always the most 
fertile. The vast plateaus that stretch away 
from the rivers are claimed to be of the highest 
productive quality and far less liable to frost in 
the early fall. Experience has shown that the 
irrigated district will produce far richer and 
more abundant crops than the soil of any of the 
States where rainfall is depended on for moisture. 
Upon one-eightli of this valley — 30.000 acres — the 
yield of grain last year was 1,600,000 bushels. 
Bunch grass and cactus are all it would have 
grown without water. Fifty-five bushels to the 
acre is a splendid average. In many instances 
105 bushels were obtained. When a country not 
worth a continental in its original condition can 
be made by the expenditure of a trifling sum of 
money to yield $1,300,000 per year in addition 
to the support of its inhabitants, a powerful argu- 
ment is afforded in favor of making the effort 
which will reclaim lands 50,000 times as great 
and just as good. 

Supposing that the evidence now being collected 
shall be found to enforce this argument; sup- 
posing that what these people claim is true as 
to the character of their desert soil, as to the re- 
sults that would be secured from the proposed 
canal and storage system, and as to its actual 
feasibility and comparative cheapness, there is 
only one argument that now occurs to me against 
the policy of having the general Government en- 
gage in the work. That is the argument of 
which Holman and Blount and their class are the 
especial champions. I don’t know what name to 
apply to this argument unless Anti-Paternal fits 
it. They say, you know, that it is no function of 
a Government to go into business with the people, 
and there is no right in Congress to spend the 
money contributed by Indiana and Georgia for 
the benefit of Montana and Colorado. Well, now, 
that is one way of putting it, but if the real act 
of the Government is to go into business with it- 


self, and if the effect of its use of the money 
contributed by Indiana and Georgia is to reduce 
the taxes which Indiana and Georgia would other- 
wise have to pay, another face is put upon the 
matter. If a man has a beef to sell, and the 
beef is lean and bony and generally no good, and 
if he cannot find a butcher who will buy it, he 
thinks it good policy to let the beef graze a while 
and grow fat, doesn’t he? The Government has 
lands to sell, but the lands are valueless. If it 
can get its price for them by doing that which 
will make them valuable, and thereby make 
money and save itself expenses which it would 
in the other event have to bear, the question of 
policy certainly seems to be a simple one. There 
are Treasury watch-dogs who watch the Treasury 
so viciously that they prevent the inflow far 
more than the outflow. L. E. Q. 


XXV. 


MINING IN A NEW COUNTRY. 


EARLY DISCOVERIES AND PRESENT 
METHODS. 


THE PLACER SYSTEM’S SPEEDY DISAPPEAR AN OBJ 

— THE HELENA DISTRICT— PEOPLE WHO 
HAVE GROWN HI OH AT THE MINES. 

Helena, Montana, June 25. 

■Wherever there are mountains in Montana there 
are mines. In one shape or another mineral man. 
ifestations are written in the rocks or on the 
ground, wherever the earth lifts and tumbles. 
To the average eye they will not be very sig- 
nificant manifestations. The average man who 
comes out here to see how metals are discovered 
and converted from black dirt and white rock 
into gold and silver, will find himself powerfully 
impressed with the wisdom of that feature of 
the Providential plan which gave to different men 
different mental qualities and tastes and tenden. 
cies, for, after going through a mine, he can but 
reflect how little gold and silver there would 
be in the world if it were left to him to find 
it and render it of value. The little brown-stained 
stones here and there on the mountain side that 
give so quick an impulse to the prospector’s heart 
are utterly commonplace and meaningless to the 
untrained eye. It has seen little brown rocks 
many a time, and it cannot readily perceive, even 
after a succession of lectures, wherein these little 
brown rocks differ from the little brown rocks 
it has come across heretofore. 

The Montana mining district covers an immense 
territory, nearly a fifth of the new State’s acreage. 
The district has not been, as yet, more than super- 
ficially prospected, and only the merest beginning 
has been made toward the actual development 
of its wealth. As you roam around in the moun. 
tains you will see thousands of little earthen 
mounds piled up by the side of a pine shack 
and a black hole in the ground. Each of these is 
a claim upon which mining experts have deemed 
it worth while to do several hundred dollars 
worth of work. Each contains minerals, in what 
quantity nobody knows or can know until mod. 
ern machinery has burrowed in and up and down. 

In Montana, as in California, the earliest min. 
ing was the simplest. The gold was not dug out 
of rocks until there was no more to be washed 


MONTANA. 


53 


from the sand and gravel of gulch and valley. 
But quartz mining followed more quickly upon 
placer mining here than it had done elsewhere. The 
miners who came to Virginia City and Helena 
when the Alder and Last Chance gulches were 
discovered were from the older mining States, 
and they knew that free gold among the sand 
and pebbles in the bottom of a creek proved 
gold m confinement in the rocks above the creek. 
They knew that the gold in particles and nuggets 
must have come from somewhere and have gone 
through a process in order to reach the free state 
i mt0 v ?Cleys. That lesson they 

had learned in California and Nevada, and many 
of them were soon at work in the hills hunting 
for familiar signs. Little else than the staking 
out of claims was done while the placer gold 
lasted. The earliest discovery of gold in Mon- 
tana is attributed to a Scotch half-breed from the 
Canadian Bed River Valley. Being a half-breed, 
he was naturally a rover, and he came into Mon- 
tana to trade with the Indians. Being a Scotch, 
man, he naturally struck a spot where gold hap- 
pened to exist. He lived at Deer Lodge, on the 
west side of the Main Rockies, and he noticed 

tlie s , and at tiie bottom of 
the creek that flowed past his dugout. He washed 
7 1852 and collected a spoonful of 
dust, w Rich he sent to Fort Benton. It was nro- 
nounced to be “ sure-enough” gold, and 
from time to time he collected 
more. Several years later he bought 
some goods from a trader, and induced him to 
accept an ounce of dust in payment. The trader 
^ i? t0 an a ? en , °1 the American Fur Com- 
pany, who ascertained its value to be $15. This 
incident led many persons to look around in the 
?o e cl r bottoms and gulches, and from 1858 to 
nn profitable washing was done. 

The first discoveries of decided importance were 
made on Grasshopper Creek, a branch of the 
Jefferson River, the northwesterly fork of the 
BLssouri. Here in 1862, the city of Bannack 
was founded, and it quickly grew into a large 
mining camp. In the summer of that year two 
prospecting parties started to search the Big Horn 
Mountains. One of these, led by James Stuart, 
was organized in Bannack. The other, led bv 
wPliMi ^.fhes was an Idaho party. Hughes 
left Elk City, Idaho, and reached Deer Lodge 
Montana, in March, 1863, having been nine months 
on the road. It was his intention to join Stuart 
and he directed his expedition to a point on the 
Stmlungwater Creek, where he believed Stuart 
to lie encamped. He reached that delectable 
region only to find his friend gone. The remains 
of a deserted camp were visible, and he took up 
Stuart’s trail toward the Big Horn country. In 
May he arrived at the spot in the Yellowstone 
Valley where the city of Billings now stands, and 
here he was captured by a party of Crow Indians 
They robbed him of his horses and let him go, 
but upon his proceeding toward the Big Horn, 
they dispatched an Indian runner after him with 
the information that they would not allow him 
to do any prospecting whatever in their mountains. 
Hughes turned back dispirded and con- 
cluded to make the best of his 

way to Bannack, meeting as he pro- 
ceeded with a number of animating experiences 
with hostile savages. He was sufficiently a 

strategist, however, to issue safely from them 
all, and, having crossed the Gallatin and Madison 
Rivers, he came at last into a deep and narrow 
gulch which contained the head-waters of the 
Alder Creek, a branch of the Jefferson River, 
about 100 miles due south from this city. Here, 
on the evening of May 22, 1863, he went into 
camp, having travelled 700 miles in a circuit 
since leaving Deer Lodge. 

One of his party, named Fairweather, while 
the others were preparing the supper, wandered 
down into the gulch. The mountains on either 
side were steep and rugged, and he noticed several 
points of bare bed-rock jutting front their sides. 
This indicated the action of water washing the 


mountains, and induced him to fetch out his 
pan and examine the bed of the gulch. He took 
up at random a panful of dirt, and became abun- 
dantly happy at discovering a yield of about 33 
cents. He communicated this agreeable circum- 
stance to his companions, and they sank a hole 
immediately. The first panful taken from the 
bottom produced $5 10 in dust, and each suc- 
cessive washing gave convincing proof that they 
had come upon a placer digging of unwonted 
richness. Their provisions, however, were ex- 
hausted, and they concluded to make a bee-line for 
Bannack, secure a proper equipment and return. 
They lost no time in making their journey, and, 
of course, their leverish anxiety to buy the whole 
city at once excited remarks. They at length 
acknowledged they had made a rich find,” and, 
to their dismay, when they started upon their 
return trip they found the larger halt of Bannack 
at their heels. Several attempts were made to 
shake off and escape from their unwelcome fol- 
lowers, but every movement they made was 
watched. At last, as they approached the golden 
gulch, they halted. They told their tormenting 
pursuers that unless it was agreed to give each 
of them his choice of 200 leet across the gulch, 
from rim to rim. they would turn back and never 
go near their Eldorado. If, on the other hand, 
that guarantee should be given, they might all 
proceed in harmony together. The faith of the 
miners was pledged upon this basis of agreement, 
duly recorded and signed. In two days more 
the richest placer diggings ever found in the 
world were penetrated, and Virginia City was 
established. At the most critical period of the 
Nation’s financial history this gulch added sixty 
millions to the gold product of America. 

Equally interesting are the circumstances at- 
tending the birth of Helena. Four young miners, 
whose names arc not associated with 
the city’s later history, in May, 166i, were wander- 
ing along the main range prospecting. They 
had been unable to obtain claims in Alder Gulch, 
and their objective point, in ease they should fail 
to strike a rich field of their own. was Kootenai, in 
British Columbia, where common report had locat- 
ed valuable diggings. They camped one night in 
the gulch where Helena stands to-day, but tnough 
they found “ color” they were not particularly 
pleased. They doubted if gold was there ia any- 
thing like paying quantities. They pushed ahead, 
therefore, crossed the range, and had gone as many 
as thirty miles northward when they encountered 
a man who dispelled their dreams of Kootenai. He 
said the good claims were all goiae, and the best 
of them were poor, anyhow. This news was a 
great discouragement to the party. They held a 
rather dismal council, and concluded that the 
gulch they had lately left was their only hope. 
Accordingly, the next morning they turned around 
aiud came back to the spot upon which they had 
previously encamped. They grimly named the 
valley “ Last Chance Gulch,” and Last Chance 
Gulch it is to-day. They sank two holes to bed- 
rock, and their hearts leaped high when they 
counted $3 60 in dust in their first pan. Each of 
these four adventurers made a fortune from his 
claim, and soon a big camp was drawn together. 
One of the miners who had been impressed with 
the fascinations of Homer’s heroine gallantly 
urged the name of Helena as most appropriate for 
the name of the new city, and Helena it became. 

It stands to-day in the very bottom where the 
Last Chance pilgrims made their first discoveries. 
A more absurd and yet a more picturesque situa- 
tion would be difficult to fancy. Its chief busi- 
ness thoroughfare lies directly in the bottom of 
the Last Chance Gulch, at the further end of 
which the patient Chinaman is still washing his 
pan of dirt and realizing a fortune larger than in 
his own country he had ever dreamed of achiev- 
ing. Thirty millions were taken from Last Chance 
Gulch before it was abandoned to merchants and 
shopkeepers, and even now the builder of a new 
house can find laborers willing to dig his cellar 


54 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


for the dirt they take from it. There still remain 
a few placer mines in Montana, but tneir product 
is inconsiderable, and it grows less every year. 
Mining as it is done to-day is the work 01 steam 
drills and engines of .tremoadous power. It is so 
expensive that only a man of fortune, or a corpora- 
tion in which a lortune is invested, can engage 
ia it. Rut rarely does the discoverer oi a mine 
reap the full reward oi his acuteness. Before he 
can be sure of what he has, he must spend $1 00,- 
000 or so. He must usually do a vast amount of 
excavating, must run entries through solid rock, 
chasing his vein until he finds it wide and deep 
and thick enough to justify the purchase of such 
machinery as will enable him to get it out in com- 
petition with the great firms and corporations. 
These great producers, with millions of capital, 
already owning mines of the highest value, 
and able to extract the metal through their won- 
derful plants at the very minimum of possible 
expense, are in absolute control of the situation. 

The prospectors, as a general thing, are miners 
and young mining engineers. They work in the 
big mines at Butte, Helena, or Marysville until 
they have saved enough money to go out pros- 
pecting. They then buy an outfit and spend a 
few months scouring the mountains. Here and 
there they observe loose fragments of metal-bear- 
ing quartz that may or may not be near the ledge 
of rock from which time has dislodged them. 
The sagacious prospector has spent a considerable 
time studying the geological structure of these 
mountains and deriving practical information as 
to those slight and almost hidden appearances 
that signify the proximity of mineral. If he be 
an educated engineer and a practical miner also, 
as many of them are, he knows what everything 
on the surface means. The three grand divisions 
of geological time are said to be represented in 
the rocks of the Montana mountains more equally 
than in any other part of this continent. Azoic 
rocks, secondary limestones and tertiary deposits 
lie side by side, the granite gneiss being generally 
on the mountain summits, the secondary rocks 
on the slopes and the tertiary deposits in the val- 
leys. It is not always that the azoic formations 
crown the range, but that is so generally the 
case as to imply continuity of action along the 
entire uplift, and when the exceptions occur 
and secondary rocks cover slope to summit, the 
granite ridge is almost invariably to be found be- 
neath them. The mineral veins lie in the gran- 
ite and in the secondary rocks accompanying it. 

It is upon these heights that the prospector looks 
to find the tell-tale outcroppings of quartz. He 
may 6ee them first in the valley, where, displaced 
and often decomposing, they have tumbled. He 
pursues them till they grow more numerous and 
he strikes the ledge which originally bore them. 

Then he knows he is at a surface point, which 
ought to lead to a lode. He digs his tunnel 
straight through or down into the hill, according 
as he fancies from the direction of the ledge, that 
the vein must run. If he does not find it one 
way, he turns and tries another. Soon, if he 
knows his business, he sees the vein of talc and 
the quartz that holds what he is after. It may 
not be a big vein. It may not hold the mineral 
in paying quantities. It may be only a little 
pocket. In these events his labor is all for 
nothing. But he does not stop digging tall 
the vein stops, or until from its width and char- 
acter it shows what he thinks to be a valuable 
claim. In that event he stakes out his 600 by 
1,500 feet, posts his notice to all it may concern 
that he has found a lode, and makes his entry | 
under the mineral law. He takes out a specimen 
ton here and there and has it, assayed. To be j 
worth developing there should be at least, $20 of 
metal in each ton of ore. _ Large com- 
panies owning their own reduction mills and 
smelting works could profitably take out one of 
an even lower grade, but the ordinary man could 
not. The expense of mining, freighting and re- 
ducing would consume about $18 or $ 20 . 


If his investigations prove that between the 
two walls of rock which mark the limits of his 
lode lies a considerable body of paying ore, the 
prospector usually looks around for a purchaser. 
He knows the costliness of mining machinery, 
the possibility of inadequate returns, the diffi- 
culty of placing the stock of a mining company* 
and his own financial incompetence. 'He may 
have millions under his feet, but without the 
means to turn the ore into metal, they might as 
well be at the bottom of the sea. He usually 
goes to some rich mining operator, of whom there 
are fifteen or twenty available, and tries to sell 
his claim. The great man sends somebody to 
look at it> and if his report is favorable he sets 
his wits to work to get it for nothing. The 
average price for a claim at this stage of its de- 
velopment is perhaps- SI, 500. Some mining 
companies have thus acquired a score or more of 
valuable mines which they operate or not. as their 
convenience is pleased. Hundreds of men in 
Montana have grown rich in a way that rather 
shakes one’s faith in the good old adages about 
thrift and industry and temperance, and all those 
wholesome qualities. They took an abandoned 
claim or two for the price of a pony, held it as 
dead weight till somebody else with an adjacent 
claim revealed its true value, and now they play 
poker in a game where $5 is the price of the 
white chips. Some of them whose sons lead the 
swell germans and drive blooded horses, and 
whose daughters pronounce calf with an “ a” as 
broad as their feet and carry feather fans that 
look like fire-screens, came first into prominence 
as occupants of the high chair behind a faro table. 
They gamble for a living still, I fancy, if the 
truth were known ; but when you gamble in 
millions, and gamble well, you are just as respect- 
able in Helena as you would be in Boston or 
New- York. L. E. Q. 

XXVI. 

A REIGN OF TERROR. 


TALES OF WILD LIFE IN THE EARLY MINING 
CAMPS. 

THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF GEORGE IVES— 
VIRGINIA OITT’S VIGILANCE COMMITTEE 
AND ITS SALUTARY WORK. 

Virginia City, Mon.. July 1. 

No story of the wildness of Rocky Mountain 
life in the early days of Bannack and Virginia 
City, however far it might depart from historical 
accuracy, could be an exaggeration. For all that 
is tragic and terrible, for stormy passions, swift 
revenges, reckless deviltry, hideous brutality, con- 
scienceless cruelty, for all that is lawless and 
vicious and desperate, the annals of early mining 
days in the Rocky Mountains are unapproachable. 
To hear these “ Old-Timers,” as the men of the 
sixties are called, telling their actual experiences, 
events which their own eyes have seen and in 
which their own hands have participated, one un- 
consciously finds his hair lifting itself upon his 
head, while the “ creeps” chase up and down his 
back. It is not hard, however, to picture from 
what he sees to-day the conditions that must 
then have been. Take away the railroads, the 
good women and the little children, and leave 
only hard-grained men and harder courtesans, turn 
loose a few choice demons, and the reign of terror 
would quickly start in again. There is something 
in the dry, quick-moving, electric air of these 
mountain heights, something about the fierce 


MONTANA. 


65 


pine trees and the rugged rocky cliffs, something 
about the wild canons and the roaring streams, 
leaping over ledges and churning their own waters, 
something all around that brings out ail that is 
grim and dreadful in the human heart. 

Montana naturally secured among its first in- 
habitants the moral refuse o*f the older mining 
States. All the desperadoes who had reached the 
end of their tether in California and Nevada col- 
lected around Bannack, Helena and Virginia. 
They gave themselves new names and, for a time, 
new manners. In almost every case they had 
some pretended occupation. Some were miners, 
some were ranchers. Everything in and about 
a mining camp was. of course, in the crudest state 
imaginable. Virginia’s nearest points of supply 
were Fort Benton and Salt Lake City. All that 
the people wore, and pretty much all that they 
ate, came across the plains in wagons from Salt 
Lake cr up the Missouri to Benton and then 200 
miles overland. The miners lived in tents and 
dug-outs. Such as were capitalists owned log 
cabins of greater or less dimensions. These were 
grouped together on the precipitous mountain sides 
above the gulch in which they worked. Every 
other cabin was a gin-mill or a “ hurdy-gurdy.” 
Women of the “ toughest” type had flocked in 
from the brothels of San Francisco and Chicago. 
The gamblers were the aristocrats of the place. 

For a long while there was no such thing as 
law, nor any machinery through which law could 
be administerea. Everybody had to depend on 
everybody else’s sense of justice and on liis own 
six-shooter. Pistols and knives hung numerously 
from every man’s belt, and were resorted to upon 
the slightest provocation. No attention was paid 
to ordinary duels brought about by a sense of 
wrong between the involved parties, retaliation 
was considered not only natural, but the only 
thing possible. Affairs of this kind went on con- 
stantly and scarcely excited remark. The victor 
was congratulated, the victim buried and the thing 
promptly forgotten. It was only when a cold- 
blooded and unprovoked murder was 
committed, or when a mau was shot 
down without a fair chance to defend 
himself, that anything like a shock was given to 
the community. Flagrant outrage became so fre- 
quent that a miners’ court was finally established. 
A sheriff was elected, whose duty was to arrest 
and hold alleged offenders, and a judge was chosen 
to preside at trials. But small respect was paid 
to these feeble efforts at law and order. It was 
only when the community was fully aroused and 
the criminal easily caught that, punishment fol- 
lowed even the darkest crimes. 

And dark crimes many of them were, too ; 
crimes so lurid and causeless that one wonders 
how people could have been willing to live where 
the hidden pistol and the unseen knife were liable 
at any moment to do their deadly work. The 
robbery of stage-coaches was a nightly occurrence. 
Men known to be carrying money started away 
and were never heard of again. Everybody was 
in danger, for everybody possessed more or less 
gold. It, was nothing for SI, 000 in gold dust to 
be washed out at a day's work. Gold dust stood 
around on cabin floors in milk pans. It was 
shipped out by the ton. The price of everything 
was an ounce of dust— $18 in gold--and the 
poorest man in the camp carried with him his 
bao 1 of dust, worth from $500 to $2,000. It 
■was hard to tell who was a robber and who 
wasn’t. Everybody drank, almost everybody 
gambled, everybody swore like a Texan; and yet 
the vast majority were men of honor, as honor 
was measured there and then. 

Certain characters soon came to be marked by 
the miners generally. They were the fellows who 
got drunk and bullied, who called themselves 
8 the chief” and boasted how many men they had 
killed. These fellows were oontinuallv in scrapes. 
One of them shot a man who dunned him for a 
debt Another, meeting a person against whom 
he cherished a grievance, coolly observed, “ Bill. 
I don’t like you very well.” and put a bullet 
through the object cf his malignity. Some others. 


endeavoring to capture an Indian squaw whom 
one of the party had bought, and who, being 
cruelly treated, had returned to her tribe, opened 
a fusillade on the" Indians, Wiling several of them 
and two or three white people, too. They were 
remonstrated with for killing the whites, and 
they cheerfully replied, “ Damn ’em. they didn’t 
have no business to be in the tepees!” 

They fought among themselves more or less. 
Wiling each other with the utmost complacency. 
That these fellows were connected witli the secret 
murders and robberies became a settled 
conviction in the camps, but deep-sighted 
men were by no means satisfied that they were 
the worst or the most dangerous of the gang. 
There was a gang— that was evident— a regularly 
organized band of desperadoes, with spies in every 
camp. They always seemed to know when and 
where to strike, and such faltering and fearful 
efforts as were made to discover them amounted 
to nothing. Men who dared to eDgage in that 
enterprise would find significant warnings in their 
paths, a sheath-knife stuck in their front door- 
posts, or other cheerful, suggestive marks and 
signs placed where they could not fail to be seen. 
If any man was supposed to know too much, ac- 
quired however accidentally and preserved how- 
ever sacredly, he was almost sure to disappear. 
There was a method and an efficiency in the opera- 
tions of the gang which showed it to be under 
the direction of a highly superior devil. 

When the crisis came the people were ready 
for it. A feeling had been growing up among 
them for months that a battle to the death 
between them and the desperadoes was unavoid- 
able, and the sooner it was over the better for all. 
As to the guilt of any one man with relation 
to an act for which he could be condemned ac- 
cording to the code of the mountains, there was 
doubt. It was too difficult to get a jury of 
mountaineers to discriminate .between murder 
and justifiable homicide to make it worth while 
getting up a trial over an ordinary “ shootin’ 
match.” An old man living in Nevada City, a 
mining camp two or three miles below here, had 
some horses ranging on a ranch a few miles out 
of town. He sent a man called “ Dutchy” after 
the horses. “ Dutchy” gathered them in a bunch 
and vlent to the ranch house to pay for the 
keeping of them. Half a dozen men were in the 
cabin, and they all saw Dutchy’s pile of dush- 
a large-sized bag of it. Having settled his em- 
ployer’s bill, “ Dutchy” went away, and the 
crowd shook dice as to who should fellow him, 
and capture the dust. George Ives was the man 
upon whom chance imposed this duty. Ives was 
a tall, handsome, blue-eyed fellow, highly agree- 
able in his manner and conversation, said to be 
of an excellent family in “ The States,” and a 
graduate from an Eastern college. Ives accepted 
the task, sprang on his horse and started off in 
put suit of “ Dutchy.” Soon he returned with the 
horses and the gold-dust. 

“ Did you wing him ?” asked one of the party.' 

“ Guess I did,” said Ives. “ I hate to shoot 
a fellow in the back, so I called out to him, 

‘ Hello. Dutchy,’ and when he turned, I let her 
drive I” 

The plunder was divided, and so far as tho 
robbers were concerned, the incident was forgotten. 
But the man who owned the hors s, becoming 
alarmed for the safety of “ Dutchy,” sent out ai 
second messenger, and he, riding through the 
bushes as he neared the ranch, came upon 
“ Dutchy’s” dead body lying just wh re Ives 
had left it. He placed it on his horse and brought 
it into Nevada, On the way ho stopped at the 
ranch and asked Ives, “ Long John.” and a man 
named Hilderman. the only three men in the 
cabin, if th n y knew how “ Dutchy” “ had got 
hurt,” They said no, that people were always 
being killed nowadays, and they never bothered 
their brains over such things. When the body 
was exhibited in Nevada, the miners, merchants 
and shop-keepers gathered around it in a highly 


56 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


excited mental condition. Word was quietly passed 
around to some twenty-five of them that a Little 
meeting was to be held at a given place imme- 
diately, and thither the selected ones repaired. 
Long John, Ives and Hilderman were discussed, 
and the common sentiment was expressed that 
they knew more or less about “ Dutchy’s” murder. 
It was decided to go and capture them, anyhow. 
A written agreement to stand or tall together 
was executed, and at night the cavalcade started 
for the mountains. They came within sight of 
their destination at about daybreak, and a dog 
announced their coming. Instantly they sur- 
rounded the shanty and forced the door. They 
had done their work so quickly that the party 
inside, of which there were a dozen members 
lying around on the floor, scarcely had time 
to awaken. 

“ The man who stirs now will never stir again P 
said the leader, sharply and grimly. “Long John I” 

Long John called out “ Here!” 

“ Wc want you, Long John." 1 

Issuing from a corner. Long John passed from 
the cabin into the yard, where it had been ar- 
ranged that a sub-committee should question him. 
They gave him to understand that he had to die 
on general principles for the murder of “ Dutchy,” 
and if he wanted to say anything they would 
hear it. He broke down instantly and confessed I 
the whole story. He tcld much more than what 
related to the particular crime for which he was 
taken, and promised if they would spare his life 
and get him out of the country, to reveal the 
true history of the “ road agents.” No promises 
were then made, but his story concerning 
“ Dutchy’s” case was fully looked into. He said 
Ives did it. 

Meanwhile Ives and Hilderman were in custody. 
The method of arrest was simple. The accused 
men were deprived of their weapons with the 
understanding that they would be shot down if 
they played any pranks. Ives was no ordinary 
knave. His mind acted with promptness and 
decision, and he had a nerve unshakable. Withal, 
his handsome young face and ingenuous manner 
were in themselves resources of "no mean value. 
He took his arrest ns if it were some odd mistake 
Il'ich would be cleared up in good time, and 
called for no particular concern on his part. 
He laughed and joked about it with his captors, 
occasionally growing serious, protesting his inno- 
cence, and asking what had led them to suspect 
him. He kept all the while a sharn and curious eye 
nxed on Long John, and undoubtedly concluded 
from the cowardly miscreant’s abashed and down- 
cast. expression that he had told the tale. As the 
cavalcade rode fleetly homeward. Iv°s mounted 
on his own cayuse. a pony of speed and endurance 
managed to get slightly in the lead, so that his 
horse regulated the gait of the others. As they 
came up on him, he lot, out a little more rein, and 
soon the party were in a racing humor. Cayuses 
always want, to race, and little by little Ives 
and two of the “ vigilantes” distanced the rest. 

When safely away' from the main party Ives 
gave a sudden yell. His pony answered with a 
desperate bound, and ears flat, nostrils distended, 
he totre over the trail like lightning. The 
only cayuse able to follow him was ridden by a 
man of whose character many members of the 
committee were in grave doubt. His name was 
Burtchey. He had got into their secret meeting, 
nobody knew just how, and when the party 
saw Ives plunging wildly up hills and down 
ravines, with Burtchey at his heels, they concluded 
they had been “ played.” Several, however, went 
forward in pursuit. Mountains were between them 
and their game. Presently they came upon the 
two ponies which Ives and Burtchey had been 
riding, blown and abandoned. Their fears were 
confirmed, but they 7c new at least that the outlaw 
could not be far away. The chance of finding him 
in such fastnesses was scarcely one in ten. Sud- 
denly they heard a shout sounding faint and afar. 
They replied, and again it sounded, clearer than 


before. They rode briskly forward, and as they 
turned a ledge of rock they came upon Burtchey 
with Ives at bay. The murderer was stand- 
ing, dark and defiant, within a rocky closet where 
Burtchey, ride in hand, had driven him. There 
were no further suggestions in doubt of Burtchey’ s 
loyalty, and the rest of the journey to Nevada was 
made with Ives stoutly pinioned in his saddle and 
another man holding his pony’s bridle. 

The news of the capture had preceded them, and 
a great crowd of miners was assembled as the ca- 
valcade rode into the camp. Not all of the multi- 
tude were in sympathy with the “ vigilantes.” 
Ives, especially, had many friends, and they were 
not confined to the ruffianly element, either. He 
was a liberal, generous knave, and, like Mr. Gil- 
bert’s burglar, had his amiable qualities. In every 
community there is always a certain thin-skinned 
and dull-witted contingent who will make heroes 
of scoundrels, and who, because it wasn’t their 
throat or their son John’s throat that was cut, will 
always plead something in extenuation of the 
throat-cutter. Ives knew just how to work on 
the silly sympathies of that sort of people. He 
loudly protested his innocence. He wanted to 
know if his life was going to be taken merely on 
suspicion and without a trial. If that was what 
they were up to, whose life would be safe ? He 
! begged to be conveyed to Virginia City and turned 
over to what he called the “ civil authorities.” By 
this he meant to a certain sheriff, whose name was 
Plummer. This was exactly what the wiser mem- 
bers of the committee had determined should not 
be done. They had long entertained a deep dis- 
trust of Plummer. They knew him to be a reck- 
less, devilish fellow, and thing- had recently come 
out which led them to believe that he was 
the leader and arch-fiend of the band of maraud- 
ers, robbers and murderers. Plummer was a man 
of real ability. He had come early into Bannack, 
had quickly impressed himself favorably upon 
the miners, and had induced them to elect him 
sheriff. Then, coming to Alder Gulch, which was 
first settled by people from Bannack, he had ob- 
tained the same office here, so that when Ives 
was arrested, Plummer was the sole officer of 
State in all Montana. His conduct at first was 
apparently above reproach, though he kept a 
“ tough” crowd of so-called deputies around him. 
In the course of six or eight months ugly stories 
got around about Plummer’s record outside of 
Montana. It was said ne had killed several men 
in Nevada and California, from which States he 
was a fugitive, and that his murders had been 
committed in aid erf big gold robberies. His be- 
havior when drunk tended to confirm these tales. 
Amazingly quick, adroit and accurate in his use 
of a pistol, he had wounded two or three men in 
Bannack, and had done a good deal of that partic- 
ular Rocky Mountain boasting which characterized 
the full-fledged ruffian-terror of those days. But 
when he sobered up he would always smooth over 
these little affairs, and it cannot be said that they 
had thrown him into any great prejudice with the 
miners. It had been observed and quietly com- 
mented upon after the occurrence of some par- 
ticularly big and atrocious outrage, that Plummer 
was away from Bannack just at the fateful 
hour; but that, of course, did not go far toward 
proving anything. 

Where Ives should be tried and how were 
troublesome questions. The committee did not 
feel strong enough to proceed without reference 
to the miners around them. They were afraid of 
a rescue. Their number was only twenty-five. 
They knew Ives could muster at least 200 friends. 
Their plain course, therefore, was to win over the 
great body of the miners to their side. They first 
took a ballot whether they should convey Ives to 
Virginia or try him in the low^r town. By a 
single vote it was decided to hold him where he 
was. They then called the as-enabled crowd to 
order. It was a remarkable scene. Fifteen hun- 
dred men, great; rough-bearded fellows, bronze 
of hue and big of muscle, sat in a single wide- 


MONTANA. 


57 


spread group upon the mountain slope. It was 
a bright, clear winter morning. The mountains 
were bare and gaunt, and their rocky heights 
lent majesty to a scene that did not lack solem- 
nity of its own. The uncovered sun sent down 
a glare of warming light and the atmosphere was 
still and peaceful. Children played in the gulch, 
for there were some children even there. All 
work in the diggings was suspended. Crowds of 
people came down from Virginia. Fringing the 
border of the great group there were little clus- 
ters of women, mostly courtesans, dressed in 
gaudy skirts and blouses and intensely sympa- 
thetic for the prisoners. The miners themselves 
were generally severe of aspect. They were in 
the humor for the business before them. Knives 
and pistols hung from everv oelt, and many re- 
marks were made, not too loudly, for every man 
felt that he took his life in his own hands by 
dooming Ives to the gallows, but made silently 
and grimly, indicating that they were going to 
give the accused simple justice, no more and no less. 

It was discovered while the preliminaries were 
being arranged that the prisoners’ friends had em- 
ployed every lawyer living in the two camps, 
and for a time the committee were at a loss to 
know how or by whom their case should be pre- 
sented. Some one happened to remember that 
Colonel Wilbur F. Sanders, a prominent lawyer of 
Binnacle, was visiting Virginia on business, and 
the_ Colonel was sent for. He had already been 
offered a retainer on behalf of Ives, but had de- 
clined it, and when found was just about step- 
ping into the coach to go home. Being informed 
of the committee’s predicament he willingly con- 
sented to serve them. He was then, as he is now, 
a tall, sharp-featured, clear-headed man, utterly 
fearless and audacious. He had served two years 
in the army and was used to leadership. Ho 
quickly possessed himself of the facts in the case 
and took his place in a wagon-box, where judge, 
prisoner and lawyers were accommodated in full 
view of the multitude. 

At once a discussion arose about tlie lawyers. 
Many of the miners protested against lawyers in 
general and against Ives’s lawyers in particular. 
They said he had killed the Dutchman or he 
hadn’t. If he had, he must hang. If he hadn’t, 
nobody wanted to hurt him. They didn’t 
want any Lawyers to quibble and talk, 
and quote from books that nobody cared 
about. The lawyers were there to keep back the 
facts and to bother and confuse the people, and 
they “ didn’t want no nonsense.” This view 
seemed to he highly popular, and the more Ives's 
lawyers and friends talked against it, the more it 
gained in popularity. At last Colonel Sanders’s 
opinion was called for. He said he was personally 
indifferent to the decision they rendered. He 
was willing to represent the people if they wanted 
him : but if they didn’t he was more than content. 
He thought they ought to decide the question in 
view of what would be their feeling when the 
case was ended. If Ives were found guilty and 
hanged would they feel satisfied at having denied 
him the benefit of counsel ? Wouldn’t it be for- 
ever urged against them that they had lynched 
a man without giving him a fair chance to prove 
his innocence? If, on the other hand, he was 
shown to be without guilt, wouldn’t they feel 
better that they had had the case presented ac- 
cording to the law of the land ? This temper- 
ate speech had an immediate effect. Ives was 
allowed his lawyers. Then the question arose 
as to the jury. It, too. was settled upon Colonel 
■Sanders’s suggestion. The case was likely to be 
a long one, and he doubted if the whole camp 
would have the patience to sit by and hear it 
through. He proposed a jury of twenty-four 
men, to be regularly drawn, but open to exam- 
ination and challenge, who should hear all the 
evidence, listen to the speeches and make a re- 
port to the camp as to the prisoner’s guilt or in- 
nocence and the appropriate punishment if guilty, 
the camp reserving final judgment to itself. 


The case then began. Colonel Sanaers called 
the man who had found “ Dutchy’s” body. He 
told his story fully and well ; how he came to 
find it ; how he knew the body to be “ Dutchy’s” ; 
how it had been lully identified; where the bullet- 
hole was ; how he saw the marks of a fine lasso 
around “ Dutchy’s” neck, and saw the trail along 
which he had been dragged, still bleeding from his 
wounds, into the bushes that had marked his 
muddy tomb. The employer of “ Dutchy” was 
brought forward to tell about bis errand to the 
ranch. Then “ Long John” told the main story. 
"Long John’s” confession was made in fear of 
punishment and in hope of reward. He had been 
promised a free rope to death if he did not tell 
and a free horse to Utah if he did. Perhaps the 
Court of Appeals of a civilized State would never 
have permitted a murderous outlaw to be hanged 
in such shocking violation of the rules. But 
these hard-headed miners were not disturbed 
about rules, and “ Long John's” story “ went.” 
They actually permitted evidence to be given 
proving that Ives was guilty of other crimes than 
the one for which he was being tried. His law- 
yers raged and panted, got wind and raged again. 
They said Ives was being “railroaded,” a phrase 
frequently heard, I believe, during the famous 
"boodle” trials in New-York. They quoted at 
great length from big books, but Colonel Sanders 
went placidly on and showed that Ives had lulled 
four other men, that he had once tied a man to 
a post and killed him with bird-shot, taking drinks 
between each lire and slowly torturing his vie 
tim to death. He proved robbery after robbery, 
the crowd growing sterner and fiercer as each 
foul crime was unfolded. 

There was no defence. Ives attempted the 
alibi game, but it failed, and the jury brought in 
a verdict signed by twenty-three of the twenty, 
four declaring him guilty of murder and deserv- 
ing of death. His friends, anticipating this, had 
gathered in full strength and were now pleading 
his cause in little groups among the miners. 
But Colonel Sanders gave them little time, 
'the sound of the foreman’s voice had not died 
away before he was on his feet moving that the 
verdict be confirmed. There was a dreadful hush, 
and then a miner stood up and said it must be clear 
to all that the verdict was just, lie seconded the 
Colonel’s motion. A hoarse murmur arose from 
Ives’s friends, and the miner-marshal in charge of 
the prisoner bade him stand. 

Clicking his revolver, the marshal said to the 
crowds : “ You oan’t come no ‘funny business’ here, 
if this man’s friends wants him to die dead sure, 
they’d better try to git him away from me 1” Then 
he ordered his guard, 100 strong, to surround the 
prisoner. The guard, their riues in hand, took 
their places. 

The judge put the motion, and a loud chorus of 
responding “ayes!” was heard. To the negative 
only a few of the hardier ruffians dared answer. 

“ The motion is carried, and the verdict con- 
firmed!” said the judge. 

Colonel Sanders again arose. “ I move.” he 
said, “ that the marshal be directed immediately 
to construct his gallows, and that George Ives be 
hanged by the neck thereon until he is dead!” 

Although this motion was the necessary comple- 
ment of the one that had just prevailed, it was 
unexpected, and fell with a shock upon the crowd. 
The darkness was fast gathering, and it had been 
generally assumed that the execution would be 
delayed until the morrow, and yet it seemed to 
strike everybody that the sooner it was over the 
better. The motion was put and carried with 
scarcely a negative vote, and then the murmurs 
from Ives’s friends swelled into a roar. Several 
attempted to make speeches, when, above the 
noise, Ives’s own voice was heard calling Colonel 
Sanders’s name. The Colonel turned to him. 

“ Well ?” he said. 

“ I want to say a word to you.” 

“ Go on.” 

Ives turned away from the marshal ana 


58' 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


clambered into the wagon where the 
Colonel was standing. His handsome face, 
flushed with excitement, was handsomer than ever, 
and as he reached forth his hand and grasped that 
of the lawyer t-o whom in an especial degree he 
owed his present dreadful situation, the excite- 
ment became intense, and a solemn silence fell 
upon the crowd. 

He was a good speaker, and he said his last 
words well. He began with a renewal of his 
protestations of innocence, lie acknowledged that 
he had led a wicked lile, but claimed that this 
crime was not upon his heart and hands. He was 
born, he said, of good parents, and his old mother 
and two sisters were living yet. He begged for 
time to write them a letter. His voice grew 
broken, and tears came to bis eyes. If lie must 
die. at least give him a chance to make liis will 
and beg forgiveness of the sorrowing old mother 
whose closing years he had embittered. He prom- 
ised he would not seek to escape, and on behalf 
#1 his friends that no attempt should be made at 
his rescue, but as the last request of a man who 
knew he would soon have to face a God against 
whom h's life had been a standing crime, he begged 
that the execution should be delayed until the 
morning. 

It was a most adroit and telling speech, and for 
a moment Colonel Sanders hesitated. Not that 
he thought of granting the request, but that he 
might formulate such a reply as would satisfy the 
crowd. During the moment’s pause a voice called 
out: “ Colonel, ask him how long he give poor 
Dutchy I” 

That was enough. The crowd’s sympathies 
deserted Ives, and when the Colonel suggested 
that Ives write his letter and make his will im- 
mediately, there were a multitude of responses, 

“ Good!” “ That’s right!” 

Brief and simple were the marshal’s prepara- 
tions. He planted a pole by the side of an un- 
finished cabin, ran a beam across, and fixed a 
dangling noose to the beam. The platform was a 
dry-goods box, and in thirty minutes the prisoner 
was standing on the box with a guard 200 strong 
around him. As the marshal grasped the box to 
pull it away, he cried to the guard : “ Company! 

Attention! Take aim!”” Instantly 200 guns 
were levelled at the crowd in front and 200 
‘ clicks” were heard sharply on the night air. In 
another instant Ives had fallen. “ He’s broke his 
neck,” cried the marshal. “ He is dead !” 

Ihe execution of Ives was followed by the or- 
ganization of that famous band, the Montana 
Vigilantes. It was seen that a body of men brave 
enough and resolute enough and strong enough 
to enforce the death penalty upon the desperadoes 
of whom Long John had given information must 
be found, and that until society had been freed of 
the villains who now held men’s courage in bond- 
age, they must take the law in their own hands. 
Long John had relinquished the secrets of the 
entire robber band. He told who they were and 
where they were posted, what they did in aid of the 
general enterprise and by whom they were di- 
rected. Hilderman was tried immediately, found 
guilty and sentenced to be banished. He, too, 
made a confession, corroborating Long John’s upon 
every vital point. It appeared that no less than 
108 men had been murdered in one year by these 
bloody miscreants, while robberies innumerable 
had been perpetrated. Long John’s story was in 
many respects imperfect, a circumstance due to the 
fact that he was but imperfectly trusted by the 
robber chiefs. What he knew, however, he knew 
well. He knew the actual perpetrators of many 
crimes and foremost in all the greater ones was 
Plummer, the sheriff. He was the captain of the 
band, and his authority was undisputed. Ives 
held the second rank : and below them were thirty- 
six others. They were in every camp in Montana 
and at ranches along the coach-roads. They had 
a system of signs by which coaches and even 
solitary travellers were marked for plunder! No 


detail was wanting to render their methods surely 
destructive. 

'Ihe honest men of Virginia City saw that no 
ordinary machinery within their possible reach 
could break up so firmly linked a body as this, 
'they summoned a council, s udied the situation, 
and ordered the capture and death of about a 
dozen men. They agreed that business and 
pleasure should be subordinated to the work before 
them. No more trials were to be allowed, no 
risk of escape taken. Every man there knew the 
course decided upon to be the righteous' one, the 
only one by which the robbers could be punished 
and like-minded men held in terror. Their first 
captive, on his way to the gallows, completed the 
revelations Long John had begun. His story of 
incredible crime would fill a volume, and a 
wierder, bloodier volume never was written: 
Branches of the Vigilance Committee were rapidly 
formed in every emp, end execution after exe- 
cution occurred in rapid succession. Plummer 
was among the first to go. None was spared. 
Many confessed in fear of their souls, but whether 
they confessed or stood defiant, they were hanged. 
Oniy three or four were successful in efforts to 
escape for the clutch of th > “ Vigilantes” reached 
far and wide and descended with dread certainty. 
In another year Montana was purged. Lawless 
men kept out of a Territory where so swift and 
deadly a reception awaited them. Coaches came 
and went in safety. Men travelled when and 
where they pleased without fear of trouble. The 
dreams of every "guilty soul were haunted with 
the spectral pictur° of a midnieht group of 
shadowy horsemen clust°red about, his door, a line 
of glimmering rifles directed at his crouching 
form, and a light rope damrling from the gaunt 
and naked limb of the nearest tree. I whh I had 
the space to tell and you the pa triune" to read the 
record of fheir battles, their long travels over 
mountain and prairie, their grave and portentous 
councils, their wearv vigils, their s : mde- handed 
struggles and their final victories. They braved 
every peril, endured every hardship. They 
found themselves cruelly misunderstood in favored 
States where the law’s hand was strode- and men 
had no fear of stepping blindly into death. But 
they kept true to the work they had undertaken, 
and the minina- camp of to-day would have been 
a far longer while coming without them. 

L. E. Q. 

xxvn. 


A MOUNTAIN CAPITAL. 


HELENA. ITS SOLID GROWTH IN WEALTH 
AND POPULATION. 

A. DISTRIBUTING CENTRE FOR THE WHOLE 
TERRITORY— FACTS AND FIGURES WHICH 

show Montana’s astonishing 

RESOURCES. 

Helena. Mont.. July 4. 

The trail to Helena leads everywhere else. No 
other reason can possibly be suggested why a 
place that began as a mining camp in a lonely 
mountain chasm endures as ihe most commanding 
of the cities of Montana. There are older cities 
that once were greater, but the engine that draws 
you thither stops and turns around. From its 
earliest history Helena has been a distributing 
point. Standing directly in front of Fort Benton, 
where Missouri navigation ceases, it received from 
Benton all the suppplies that came from St. 
Louis destinend to points east and west and south 
of the Rocky range. Its earliest years were 


MONTANA. 


5» 


highly prosperous. So soon as it became known 
that gold had been discovered in the Last Chance 
Gulch, a settlement sprang up, and everybody’s 
energies were bent upon washing a fortune from 
the sand and gravel that formed the bed of the 
>retty little rivulet romping through the gulch, 
t was the same old-fashioned mining camp, built 
of pine logs and mud, where men grew rich be- 
tween dawn and dark, where the gold fever raged 
and wasted ail day and the fires of dissipation 
burned all night. Everybody was his own best 
friend and occupied himself administering to his 
own happiness. 

But in a few years the. gold was gone. It had 
created several large fortunes. Speculators and 
gamblers had contrived to capture the greater 
part of it, and when dull times came they bore 
heaviest upon those whose industry had created 
the city. For ten years after 1868, the Territory 
stood still, and Helena stood with it— declined 
with it, possibly. The Northern Pacific Railroad 
lay stranded on the Missouri at Bismarck, and 
great walls of rock stood between Montana and 
the railway lines below. It was almost impossible 
to get a road into the Territory, and without 
freighting facilities the country’s resources were 
only stone and dirt. Still, there were plucky 
people who hung on. There were others who hung 
on because they couldn’t let go, and between 
them they contrived at last to get what went for a 
railroad. It was a little narrow-gauge line from 
Ogden and the Mormon country into Montana, 
connecting with the Union Pacific and controlled 
by it. This little road did great things for the 
miners. It was put into Butte, and business 
started with a rush. Shortly afterward, in 1881, 
the Northern Pacific, revived by Mr. Billings, 
came to the eastern frontier of the Territory, and 
two years later Mr. Villard ran it into Helena. 

From that moment Montana moved grandly 
forward. Helena had been twenty years getting 
5,000 inhabitants. In five years more it had 
20,000. From a log camp it has become a city 
of granite and marble. Right there on the foot- 
hills of the Rocky Mountains, where but a little 
while ago deer and bear were hunted, stand 
splendid houses that would look well in upper 
Fifth-ave. It is a modern town, with all the 
modern virtues and all the modern vices. The 
Salvation Army and the “ Theatre Comique” con- 
duct their hostile services side by side, and call 
striking attention to the eternal warfare between 
the hosts of Gabriel and the hosts of Belial. The 
flat-chested Salvation sirens stand in front of 
their building and howl, “ We are the children of 
the Lar-ar-ard,” while directly across the street 
a brass band shrieks and snorts in dreadful 
harmony, summoning the gay and the giddy to 
the refreshing performances of “ Light-footed 
Lilly” and the divine artist, Meggv Muldoon.” 

It is a mistake to suppose that Helena depends 
on mining exclusively or her support. There are 
no mines of any great account within twenty-five 
miles of the city. In some measure, greater or 
less, every mine in the Territory pays tribute to 
the capital city. The rich men of 
Helena have interests everywhere, and they draw 
as they can to the town where their principal 
affairs are placed. Each of the heavy millionaires 
controls some big financial institution to which 
every other enterprise he owns is made to con- 
tribute. This policy is uniform with them all. 
They have their jealousies and rivalries, but 
they pull true and together for Helena, and have 
succeeded in giving it an enviable reputation for 
wealth. It is said to be the richest city of its 
size in the world, and statistics are quoted by 
the yard to support tin's claim. Its largest bank, 
for instance, holds an average of four millions 
of deposits. If the money lying idle in the vaults 
of Helena were apportioned per capita to the 
people of the city, each man, woman and child 
would own $1,250. 

It is accepted, in Helena and out. that the 
city will stav. Its neople have forced this im- 
pression by their audacity. They have invested 


many millions in houses of the most substantial 
kind. Many of the finest business establishments 
in the city were erected at a time when it required 
either a remarkable nerve or a vast degree of 
penetration to make such investments. But one 
such building led to the construction of another 
until an enduring city has been made. The city 
was not built, however, uutil the country de- 
manded it. Much of it has gone up since the 
Manitoba railway system, starting from St. Paul 
on its way to the Pacific Coast, came along to 
receive abundant cargoes of Northern-grown grain. 
The products of the Territory, swelling enor- 
mously every year, have rendered a town like 
Helena necessary. The first coal mine in Montana 
began to do business two years ago. In 1888 the 
product of the mines reached 117,800 tons. It 
will reach 350,000 before 1889 is ended. Tho 
assessed value of property liable to taxation is 
$67,430,533. The actual value of all property 
cannot be less than 200,000,000. From 26,155 
acres sown in wheat, 770,200 bushels wero 
harvested. A production of 70,072 bushels of 
corn came from 2,425 acres planted, and corn 
is not considered more than a possibility in this 
climate. The yield of oats and potatoes was of 
itself a fortune to the Territory. From 84,978 
acres sown in oats came 3,026,572 bushels of 
harvested grain, nearly forty bushels to the acre, 
while 3,688 acres of potatoes supplied 842,648 
bushels in the yield. From 725,668 sheep sheared 
(and I don’t believe half the number of sheep 
and cattle in Montana are reported to the 
assessors) 4,422,030 pounds of wool were taken. 
These are a few of the figures, and only a few. 
and a shrunken few at that, which show why 
Helena is making such incredible strides toward 
metropolitan greatness. 

At the risk of burdening my story with figures, 
I will venture to repeat some mining statistics 
which will surely be strange to most people. No 
account of the present condition of this city and 
Territory would be more than suggestive without 
them. Montana has now become the greatest 
mining region in the known world, and its mines 
are all within 150 miles of Helena. Here more 
wages are paid to miners bv two and three hundred 
per cent than arc paid in Mexico, Spain, Africa 
or Australia, and yet larger profits are realized, 
larger production is reached and larger individual 
enterprises are in operation than can be found 
nnY'where pise on earth. Mr. Marcus Daly, . for 
instance, can mine copper against the combined 
capital of Europe, can pay his men $3 50 a day 
a°ainst 80 cents a day in Spain, and land the 
product of his smelter in London for one cent 
a pound less than the Spanish mines can land 
theirs. It may be doubted if any other man 
than Daly could have performed so amazing ft 
miracle, hut he did it. and in doing it. he knocked 
to flinders the great French syndicate. Tliev de- 
clined his advice. They thought their millions 
stronger than his ingenuity: hut when he hurled 
his copper at them, 2,500 tons a day. they htul 
to give mi. In the first, place, they had no suck 
mines as his. In the n°xt place, they had no suen 
machinery. His genius and the genius or 
those he called around him had provided methods 
and machines to which they were strangers, an r 
they couldn’t fight, a man who was able to pay an 
his expenses with the silver in his ore and produce 
its principal metal for nothing. This incident is 
on» of several whieh have placed Montana m the 
lead of all mineral-producing countries, and the 
actual figures showing what it is deng are 
naturally of the richest value and interest. 

The production of gold and silver in the united 
States from 1792 to 1888, inclusive, lias been 
$2,668,706,769, a contribution to the worlds 
durable monetary wealth that is hard to realize. 
The richest years, happily enough, were those im- 
mediately succeeding the Rebellion, from 1865 
to tlie date of the Resumption $885,000^000 was 
vi°ldcd bv the mines of this country. The pro- 
duction of 1888 was S33, 175,000 of gold and 


60 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


$59,1 95,000 of silver. This is the largest yield 
of silver yet realized, and with the exception of 
one year’s product, that of 1878, it was the largest 
total yield. The figures upon which a comparison 
may fie instituted for 1888 between this country 
and others are not yet available, but those of 
1887, from which there will be no substantial 
change, and none at all except in America’s favor, 
6how that this country produces about 42 per 
cent of all the gold and silver mined. It produces 
fully 50 per cent of the valuable metals. The 
value of the lead, copper, gold and silver mined, 
milled and smelted in America last year reached 
the enormous total of 3112,665,529, and Mon- 
tana’s share was S32,300,000. This was nearly 
six millions more than that of Colorado, and more 
than six millions in excess of the combined prod- 
uct of California and Nevada. Of course the end 
must sometime come to this bewildering work, 
and yet it does not seem likely to come during 
the lifetime of any one now born. There are 
hundreds of veins in these hills all untouched ex- 
cept by the prospector’s drill, and in the mines 
now being worked the further down you go the 
more abundant and the better does the ore be- 
come. The mines are unnumbered where ores 
are found too low in grade to be profitably worked 
to-day, while expenses are so extravagant, but 
when the cost of labor has fallen to the Eastern 
level and when machinery is found to reduce the 
ore in vast quantities, all these mmes will be 
operated. The two Territories of Idaho and Utah 
are now beginning to produce in a large measure, 
and the end is as yet nowhere in sight. 

The forms in which gold manifests itself are 
curious and beautiful. Sometimes in placer dig- 
gings great lumps are found of absolutely pure 
metal. One collection of nuggets owned in 
Helena numbers oveT 600 pieces, ranging from 
the size of a marble to that of a baseball. One 
lump, especially pure, weighs 4 7.7 troy ounces 
and is worth $945 80. Others are worth over 
$500. Many have been washed by the waters in 
which they were found until they have as rich a 
polish as a wedding-ring. Perhaps the most in- 
teresting form voluntarily assumed by gold is in 
crystals. These are conditions which heat could 
not possibly produce, and conclusively show that 
gold is held in solution by water and precipitated 
by coming in contact with iron, and deposited in 
quartz by the iron. Some of these cry-tals are 
inconceivably delicate and beautiful. 'They as- 
sume shapes which almost comppl the belief that 
the hand of man was instrumental in their de- 
vice, and yet they are shapes beyond the possi- 
bility of human achievement. L. E. Q. 


XXVTII. 


THE MODERN MINING-CAMP. 

BUTTE AND ITS PECULIAR MIXTURE OF 
MANY ELEMENTS 


THE ANACONDA COMPANY — MINING AT ITS 
HIGHEST STAGE OP DEVELOPMENT 
—SOCIAL ODDITIES. 

Butte, Mon., July 7. 

Butte is the evolution of the old mining camp. 
It is Virginia City enlarged, modernized, supplied 
with motor railways, electric lights, telephones 
and all that can render mountain life comfortable. 
It is a city builded on a hill, many hills, more than 
Rome can boast of. It has no type. It is of 
itself, and by itself. When you see Butte, you 
6ee what you never saw before and never can see 


[ again. You may not like Butte, you may think 
you wouldn’t care to live there, you may object 
to its manners, or its morals, but you will certainly 
admit that it is the most remarkable place “ on 
the fool stool.” Fancy a lot of frame-houses, 

mostly one-storied, enough of them to accommo- 
date 25,000 people, squatted on the side of the 
mountains, miles af board walk stretching up and 
down two or three dozen streets: fancy a great 
throng of human beings plunging along every 
thoroughfare at all hours of the day and night, 
for, apparently, only a' small proportion of the 
people of Butte waste time in sleep ; fancy men in 
plug hats and fluted shirts, men in blue blouses 
and panamas, men in black, slouched hats and 
trousers that time has forgotten to recall, men in 
other things I don’t know the names of and never 
saw except in Butte ; fancy Americans, fancy Ger- 
mans, fancy Swedes, fancy negroes, fancy Indians, 
fancy Ch'namen, fancy Castle Garden, fancy the 
Bowery, fancy Shanty Town, fancy Beacon-st., 
fancy a Methodist camp-ground— jumble them all 
together, and you will have something that is in 
a measure suggestive of Butte. 

Butte has a delightful society, capable of satis- 
fying everybody’s taste. If you prefer refined 
and cultivated people, college-bred and broadened 
by travel, they are there and happy to know you. 
If you like plain, common, everyday folk, whose 
hearts are better than their manners, they are 
numerous, apt to be rich and sure to be friendly. 
If you enjoy gamblers and thieves, prize-fighters 
and sporting-men generally, they are as available 
as ticks in a pine forest. There are people who 
say that Butte is the wickedest place in the 
world. I doubt it. I doubt if anything happens 
in Butte that doesn’t happen contemporaneously 
in Boston. The only difference is that they are 
more candid in Butte than in Boston. 
The gambling-houses of Butte have their 
doors wide open, without even so much as 
a wicker screen to shield their careless players. 
Over their doors is a sign-board, with the words 
conspicuously lettered, “ Licensed Gambling Sa- 
loon,” which means that they are sure of being 
let alone in the orderly conduct of their swindles 
without paying blackmail money at police head- 
quarters. Enter such a place and you see every- 
body. Mr. Jones, lawyer; Mr. Smith, banker; 
Mr. Biown, minei, a street fakir “ dropping” on 
black and white the proceeds of his night’s wrestle 
with the community’s pains and aches on the 
street corner beyond; two or three women, likely 
to be French or African; a heathen or so, silent, 
patient, but usually lucky, all huddled in a lump 
watching the mechanical movements of the long- 
bearded, elderly chap as he slides this card that 
way, and that this. There are no “ side doors,” 
no alley entrances in Butte. The sun is permitted 
to shine through clear glass windows upon the 
unjust as well as the just. A mining camp 
(and when one sees Butte he sees the greatest 
mining camp on earth) is a place where everybody 
makes money fast, where prices are high, profits 
large and gold in plentiful circulation. Naturally 
enough, the loose and the vicious are attracted 
to such a place. But, while they make themselves 


MONTANA. 


01 


more conspicuous here than in sedater and slower 
towns, they hold the same outcast relation to iil'e 
that they hold the world over. They are the 
same poor, miserable, flashy wretches. They are 
under the same social ban, the same police re- 
straints, and they come to the same lamentable 
ends. 

It is said in a circular recently issued to attract 
permanent immigration to Butte : “ We have 

seven churches, the pride and glory of our people.” 
This is all true. The people of Butte are proud 
of everything they possess. They are proud of 
their mines, of their stores (they have a store in 
Butte almost as big as Macy’sj, of their clubs, of 
their beer-halls, and why not of their churches? 
Not only those who go to the churches, but thou- 
sands who never saw the inside of them nor heard 
a Te Deum in their lives, arc proud. Butte is a 
liberal community, and it is a matter of profound 
satisfaction to the entire town that its outfit of 
churches is equal to the demand. And do not 
fear. Butte will raise the money for another 
church in ten minutes if it appears to be needed. 
She will raise it anyhow, needed or not, so soon 
as Helena starts to build a new one. Butte would 
never consent to be outstripped by Helena in 
churches or anything else, and she will have her 
steeples sweeping as high a cloud as ever Helena 
dares aspire to. 

Sunday, however, is not a very quiet day in 
Butte. It is the miner’s play-day. They hunt, 
fish and go on picnics. The bands parade on 
Sundays. The saloons esteem it their best and 
busiest opportunity. The “ hurdy-gurdies” are 
open, and dances run on incessantly. All the 
stores do business, all the mills and smelters 
run. Many people work harder on Sundays than 
on any other day. The chief evil of this whole 
Northwestern country is the tendency of every- 
body to work himself to death. You must keep 
going as the crowd goes. You can’t lag behind 
while those around you, competing with you, are 
hurling themselves forward. Everybody aclcn owl- 
edges that this is a foolish mistake. Everybody 
would infinitely prefer not to make it. But no- 
body feels able to check the current. It moves 
and you must go along, too, or find yourself left. 
Butte is 5,878 feet above the level of the sea, 
and the air is all oxygen. It keeps one’s heart 
thumping away at a great rate. One does as 
much living in ten years in Butte as he can do 
in twenty in the East. 

The city takes its name from a lofty solitary 
hill which stands apart from the main range of 
the Rockies. It is a picturesque hill, but not 
a productive one. The great mines of Butte 
are in another lower hill, and upon and between 
these two eminences stands the town. Usually 
camps are at a considerable distance from the 
mines, and even then they are apt to lie upon 
such rugged heights as to require of their inhabi- 
tants the greatest possible amount of climbing 
for the least- possible amount of “ getting 
there.” But Butte possesses a sight altogether 
remarkable. Its mines lie only a rifle shot away, 
and its hills are low and gentle in their slope. 
It is not an old camp. Its population has been 
almost wholly acquired since 1880. Only a little 
more than $1,000,000 was recovered from the 
ores of Butte in 1881. The product now, eight 
years later, has reached the enormous total of 
$ 22 , 000 , 000 . 

To enumerate the mines of Butte would be 
profitable only as a means of showing how remark- 
able a concentration of silver and copper veins 
has been made in this spot. Before claim can 
be laid to a new mine the prospector must show 
the discovery of a new vein, and the hundreds of 
mines here are testimony of just as many separate 
lodes as there are claims on file. The mining 
companies are not so very numerous, and the effort 
is to keep them down. All that enormous capital, 
lodged in a few hands, can do to discourage 
new mining enterprises is naturally done. Pros- 


pect claims are bought up as quickly as they are 
"town to be wortn buying. One company in 
Butte is said to be operating no less than twenty- 
two mines, and it owns even mote. Individual 
miners conceal their holdings under different com- 
pany names, though they possess controlling 
interests in each company. So far as the country 
is concern d, this is an excell nt scheme. It brings 
about a far greater production than would other- 
wise be possible. The investment of the Anaconda 
company, the largest of all mining associations, 
is said to exceed $20,000,000. They' own a score 
of mines, milling and smelting plants of capacities 
almost incredibly 1 - great, and all they do is upon 
a grand scale. There are a full dozen of other 
companies, smaller than the Anaconda, but still 
representing millions of expended capital, and 
they are pulling the ore from under Butte’s moun- 
tains at the rate of 18,000 tons a day. The out- 
side of a mine is not, of itself, especially impres- 
sive. Seen in its best shape, it shows only 
a machine shop, a pair of engines supplying power 
for the drills, another pair running the elevators, 
a lumber mill, a supply store and an office build- 
ing. It is noticeable that everything is always 
the best of its kind, and when the spectacle is 
presented of a number of these establishments, each 
with a gigantic chimney lifted into the clouds, 
each with its buzz-saws tearing huge Oregon tim- 
bers into logs and planks, each puffing and blow- 
ing frantically, and all grouped upon and around 
a single hill, it does look animated and busy. The 
element of power in mining machinery appeals more 
than anything else to the eye. The pumps that pull 
the water from the tunnels far underground, the 
great, thick dynamos that, illuminate the mines’ 
remotest corners ; the long, heavy engines that 
drive bars of steel into solid rock a thousand feet 
below the spot where they stand and swiftly, 
silently revolve : the tall, thick engines built high 
into the air, with enigmatical adjustments that 
show where every car is and what those at work 
half a mile away and 800 feet below the surface are 
doing— these are all splendid machines, magnifi- 
cently masculine. They do their work easily, 
quietly, gracefully, lifting masses of timber and 
ore and driving a hundred drills with as little 
seeming effort as a draught stallion would exhibit 
pulling a sulky. But it is only when one gets 
down into the mine and then off at the smelter 
that he begins to realize what a stupendous work 
is involved in getting metals from the earth. He 
goes down, down, down until his heart seems to 
be thumping in his ears. The descent is made in 
utter darkness, save for the sudden flashes of light 
that for an instant break in and are in another 
instant shut off, marking the various “ levels” or 
floors. At last,— it seems an hour, but it has been 
only eighty seconds since he started— the elevator 
stops, and he alights in a room with timbered 
walls and ceilings. He finds hallways leading here; 
there, everywhere, all brilliantly illuminated. 
In a first-class American mine there is no groping 
around in damn and filthy gloom, elad in a' musty 
oilskin and holding a sad and feeble tallow dip. 
You walk erect through halls and chambers 
brightly lighted by incandescent wires, on 
cleani board floors, with an atmos- 
phere around you as cool and pure 
as that you left on the mountains above. There 
is no more chance for fatal accidents in the mines 
around Butte than on the streets of New-York— 
less, in fact. In such matters the managements 
are faultless. The timber necessary to render a 
big mine safe is cne of the heaviest, items of 
expense. In one of the mines at Butte no less 
than 50.000 feet of timber are deposited every 
day. That mine contains already a great forest. 
Every room is supported with ceilings and floors 
of logs, and the miners work in chambers as light 
and well ventilated as a ball-room. Tire entries 
run wherever the vein runs, and rooms are opened 
as occasion for them is presented. It is bv no 
means always possible to tell the exact position 
1 or direction of the valuable lode from surface 


62 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


indications. Indeed, one cannot always tell what 
sort of ore his quartz holds. The Anaconda mine 
was bought (it is said for $30,000; in the full 
belief that it carried silver. So it does, but 
before its shaft had been sunk far a vein of 
copper was discovered of 6uch dimensions that 
generations will not exhaust it. Millions have 
been taken out, but the further down they go 
the purer is tie ore and the wider the lode. This 
is the mine owned by Mr Haggin, Senator Hearst 
and Marcus Daly. 


Mines are as different in their shape and ap. 
nearance as nature is fanciful. If the lode is 
narrow and deep, the shaft is sunk far lnlo the 
earth on a line parallel with the lode, which is 
dug into vertically and cleared out. from between 
the walls of rock that hold it If it lies on a 
level and spreads, entries are run to it and with 
it wherever it is minded to go. In most cases 
the mine owner has completed lus work when 
his ore is out and ready for the null or the 
smelter. If it is a “ free milling ore,” that is, 
an ore which contains no sulphate or other 
substance that prevents quicksilver from talcing 
up the mineral, it is simply washed and crushed 
and subjected to a dose of quicksilver. 1 he ores 
of Alaska are generally easy to treat, lhey 
submit quietly to the free milling process. Rut 
the Butte ores contain refractory elements in an 
unusual degree. Their reduction has been at- 
tained in its present perfection only as the result 
of many long and costly experiments. One of the 
copper companies has charged $2,000,000 to its 
profit and loss account in the last three years 
for machinery that failed of its purpose. Only 
within a year or so has it been known ]ust how 
to secure the fullest returns of metal from these 
ores. Enough is certainly done to them to get 
out whatever may he in them. They are first 
put under heavy cast-iron stamps and reduced 
to dust and powder. The din raised by fifty 
or sixty of these monster stamps as they pound 
and hammer the rock is almost as magnificent 
an uproar as the falls of Niagara produce. The 
pulverized ore having been concentrated is “ cal- 
cined,” that is, the sulphur is burned out of it 
in a revolving oven. Sulphur is an annoying 
and troublesome ingredient, and when it has been 
finally disposed of the metal producer Reis much 
nearer the end of his journey. From the 
calcine ovens, the ore takes a short-cut _ to the 
smelter, where raging fires melt, it into fluids, the 
metallic fluid escaping and becoming “ matte,” 
and the waste, or “ slag,” escaping to b°oome an 
element of street paving. It is all very simple 
when some one goes around with you and tells 
you what everything means, hut it seems to re- 
quire an amazing number of huge and hot and 
noisy machines to get at the object in ouest. 
Butte is the only mining camp where all the 
processes are undertaken that are necessary to 
bring the metal from the rock and the dirt. 
Butte depends on no other place. It is its own 
Leadville and its own Denver. 


The life of a mining camp is always uncer- 
tain. We no longer hear of Bannack, rarely of 
Virginia City. Whether or not Butte possesses 
in its sPnatmn that, strength and vital’t.v which 
will enable it to survive the dav — far distant, it 
is true, but sure to come— when the wealth in its 
hills will have disappeared, is a question I should 
like to feel able to answer affirmatively. It 
is decidedly a city to-dav. It ha« manufactories, 
wholesale houses, schools and many things that 
distinguish a permanent town. When its people 
begin to build substantial houses of brick and 
granite, when they cens° constructing litHe frame 
shanties, when, in brief, thev show confidence 
enough in their future t.o prove that thw them- 
selves intend to spend tlimr lives ther<\ they will 
encourage others in the belief that their march 
will never decline. 


XXIX. 


GREAT FALLS. 


A THRIVING TOWN OF ONLY THREE YEARS’ 
GROWTH. 


THE HEAD-WATERS OF THE MISSOURI— A PICT: 

URESQUE AND FERTILE REGION JUST 
BEING OPENED UP. 

Great Falls, Mont., July 14. 

At Great Falls the Missouri River becomes 
magnificent. A vastly entertaining volume might 
be written concerning the moods and humors, the 
tricks and the manners of this incomprehensible 
stream. Now it is bright, sparkling and shallow, 
bouncing and skipping over pebbles and rocks as 
gayly as a mountain brook. Now it is swift, 
dark and deep, like a mill-race moving into action. 
Now it is utterly sleepy and dull, and looks and 
behaves for all the world like a weary beauty 
when the hall is over and the damp night air has 
straightened out her bang. Now it is filthy, 
odorous of marsh, aud despicably muddy. Now 
it is meaner and more treacherous than an army 
mule, and given over to low tricks and deliberate 
schemes to ground everything that floats upon it. 
The like of this river is not elsewhere to be found, 
and some of its qualities are certainly unworthy of 
emulation. But when it becomes magnificent, it 
does so “ in great shape,” and in this respect as 
in others it has no parallel. Niagara is more 
awfully grand, the Yellowstone is sublimer, the 
Yosemite takes its long leap with a dainty grace 
and a serene confidence that give it a solitary 
place among the waterfalls ; but the Missouri rages 
and frets and battles with its environment with 
that peculiar individuality which characterizes all 
its many movements. It seems to have the human 
quality of thought and motive. 

From the point at which the three 
forks of the Missouri meet, the stream 
runs rapidly. Its course is through a mountain 
and prairie region of great beauty, and, as it 
bends, stretches of open country and rocky moun- 
tain heights are suddenly developed, affording 
constantly many novel and delightful surprises. 
As it approaches the new town of Great Falls, a 
city scarcely three years old, the river bottom 
declines precipitately, and for ten miles there 
is a steady and rapid fall. In those ten miles 
the river drops 500 feet, with a movement of vast 
spirit and power. There are three distinct 
cataracts, one of 26 feet, another, about n mile 
further, of 48 feet, and a third of 9? feet. Lewis 
and Clark discovered the Falls of the Missouri 
when they journeyed under President Jefferson’s 
orders overland from Louisville to the Pacific 
Coast. They named each of the cataracts, calling 
the first one they approached— for they travelled 
up the stream and had reached that confusing 
region where you say “ down North” and “ up 
South”— calling the first one Great Falls, the 
second Rainbow Falls, and the third Black Eagle 
Falls. Three years ago the country was just as 
Lewis aud Clark saw it in 1804. The savage 
Blackfeet still prowled over mountain and prairie 
and scarcely a sign of civilization anpeared above 
the earth. Three years I Only think of it ! Now 
upon three railroads daily trains arc running into 
a city of nearly 3.000 people, and the country 
for a hundred miles around is taken op by farm- 
ers whose golden grain nods and glistens upon 
20.000 acres. The three years’ historv of Great 
Palls is one of the most marvellous tales that 
Western settlement can boast of. 


L. E. Q. 


MONTANA. 


63 


Much has been said receutly iu depreciation 
of the people who have created an empire within 
a single decade lroin a desert country larger thau 
the original thirteen States, it has been repre- 
sented that they were mostly foreigners, ignorant 
of American ways and the American Governmental 
system, men who had no pride in our country, 
who could be voted in herds according to the 
pleasure of men through whose instrumentality 
they came hither, and, in brief, that they' con- 
stituted an inharmonious and unnatural element 
of our population. All such representations are 
mistaken. This is a subject to which I have 
given especial attention. My trip through tlies ■ 
Territories has been limited only by their bound- 
ary r lines, and has taken me into every settled 
region from St. Paul to the Pacific Coast. Con- 
cerning the character of the population I am not 
in the least afraid to anticipate the census. The 
great bulk of the people are American-born. 
The largest element came from the older Western 
States, particularly Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Mis- 
souri, and Michigan. The second element, in 
respect of size, came from the South. You hear 
constant expressions of surprise from Northwestern 
travellers at the number of South- 
ern men who have settled here, 
particularly in Montana and Washington, 
arad yet it need surprise no one. After the war 
enterprising Southern men could not be satisfied 
at home. Their country was laid fearfully low. 
They had nothing to do and nothing to get. They 
were compelled to migrate somewhere, and natu- 
rally they came West. Thousands flocked direct 
into Montana, where gold had just been discov- 
ered. They came from St. Louis up the Missouri 
river to Benton, and then across the country to 
Bannaclc. Deer Lodge, Virginia City and Helena. 
Another host went out to Nevada and California, 
a'ntl of these a considerable party worked their 
way northward along the coast into Oregon and 
Washington. The third element is composed of 
young people from Pennsylvania, New-York and 
New- bin gland, who came in with the Northern 
Pacific Railroad. Fully half of these are college- 
bred men. It will interest you to learn that there 
is a Harvard Association in Montana and Wash, 
ington. Actually' there are enough young men 
out here who have been graduated from this one 
university to justify the formation of an exclusive 
society. It would be safe to bet that as large a 
proportion of the population of Washington Ter- 
ritory are college graduates as of the State of 
Pennsylvania. In every one of these Western 
towns there is a society as serasitive of the refine- 
ments of life as any society in the East. A shrug 
of the shoulders is the politest reply that can be 
made to the person who would venture to deny' 
this proposition. 

Foreigners will be bound to occupy the fourth 
place in the stratification of Northwestern society'. 
But if they occupied the second, or the first; if. 
indeed, they constituted a clear majority of the 
people, as they actually do in certain communi- 
ties, there would be no cause whatever for alarm. 
Castle Garden receives a large body of ignorant 
and vicious creatures from the semi-barbaric regions 
of Central Europe, but that is not the class of 
foreigners who come into the Far West and 
6et about digging and planting and raising wheat 
and making themselves homes. The bad and 
worthless and dangerous foreigner doesn’t plough. 
He stays in New-Y T ork City, or moves into the con- 
genial atmosphere of Chicago and drinks beer. He 
has no use for the activity of new countries. 
There are thousands of Scandinavians, Germans, 
Russians and Swiss in the two Dakotas, and a 
large number in Mod tana and Washington. If 
more of the same sort want to come, they will 
receive a cheerful welcome. They bring wealth 
and industry with them, and you may make sure 
they are willing enough to leave behind all that 
is offensive to our republican methods and ways 
of thinking. They have had their abundant full 
of kings and standing armies and hard times. 


Trust them for knowing when they are well off,' 
and for reaching an accurate conclusion as to why 
they are well off in free America. Pay no atten- 
tion to the doleful old croakers who are always 
seeing political snakes. Let me urge Eastern 
people that, instead of spending their time in 
schemes to civilize the West, they get themselves 
inty) the mental humor in which they can appre- 
ciate the West. 

There are grave problems here-the Indian 

tariff Can viian the silver question j s another, the 
taint, Canadian reciprocity or annexation, the 

n,eTL im l )0r 4U( \ fitions ’ a11 t he se are matters 
of the highest importance to the Western people 
I hey need the sympathy and help of the Rast in 
set ling all these matters. They know just what 

o’er r f o iV 3 US n " hat they neecL - Tbe y are nei ther 
ovcr-gieedy nor over-aggressive. They want 

nothing that hurts a single Eastern interest I 

linl e ]cst th ,° next Mason and Dixon’s 

h"? should be drawn down the Missouri River, 
l his will not be if Eastern people will only take 
the pains to study and understand Western ques- 
u-I'V ,, It is , highly to their interest to do so 
Practically all the money that has built up 
V, 1 , 1 ® country has come from New-York City, 
» 4 i° n a Ji5 * hiladelphia. The financial holdings 
of these three towns in Western securities amount 
to countless millions. No large enterprise succeeds 
without an appeal to New-York. There is every 
serious reason why the East should keep informed 
about all that concerns these new commonwealths 
and now that they are to be represented in Con- 
gress by men who can enforce their opinions and 
views with votes, perhaps there will be a more 
general disposition to know what the West of 
to-day really is. 

Great Falls vividly illustrates how suddenly the 
face of the country changes. Nature has created 
tew spots more obviously designed for the site of 
a , populous town. The river is there with all 
that a great river means. The water power is 
there, available easily and to an extent altogether 
without precedent. The agricultural country is 
there, millions of acres, much of which is bein<- 
cultivated without irrigation. The mineral lands 
are there, full of gold, silver, lead and copper 
The timber and the coal are there, and what else 
could he required to make a city great and 
wealthy? The two upper falls are, of course 
far too great for any practical use. Their scenic 
attractiveness will be their chief service to the 
town. But the lower falls and the rapids will 
furnish at least a million horse-power, and it can 
be utilized for twenty miles along both sides of 
the river. Plans have already matured, and will 
soon be put into effect for the construction of a 
series of locks and dams intended to restrain the 
water and turn it to commercial account. A 
wonderful natural curiosity which may hereafter 
prove of the highest material advantage is a 
giant spring of the clearest, purest water rising 
among the rocks on the hank of the river just 
below the Black Eagle Falls. The spring is higher 
than the river, and well surrounded by a natural 
wall of roclv, over which at various points its 
waters tumble into the Missouri. It is believed 
to be the mouth of a vast subterranean river, and 
engineers estimate the flow to he equal to that of at 
stream a foot, deep and 200 feet wide. The time 
will come when this crystal spring, which is loss 
Than two miles from the city, will furnish thd 
municipal water supply. 

The farming region surrounding Great Falls 
extends for many miles toward every point of 
the compass. West of the Missouri is the Sun 
River Valley, a well-watered prairie country, 
where the soil is unbroken by rocks and the land 
unconfined by hills until the Rocky range, sixty 
miles distant, is reached. Within the basin formed 
by the Sun River on the south and Teton River 
oh the north lie 275,000 acres of excellent farming 
lands. A canal is now being dug which will 
bring water upon every part of the basin, and 
will furnish an interesting experiment of the 


04 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


proposed system ot canals and reservoirs by which 
it, is hoped to redeem the entire arid region ot 
Montana. Lakes have been secured tor storage 
purposes, and ditches are being run up and 
down, around and across the whole valley. 
To the east of the city lies the famous Judith 
basin, a semi-circular valley extending in long* 
smooth slopes from the Rig Snowy Mountains, 
which afford it a score ot little creeks that teed 
its main river. The soil ot this valley is already 
distinguished for its productiveness, and it has 
become a grain-raising section ot much importance 
in the agricultural assets ot Montana. North of 
Great Fails is the immense prairie country until 
recently held as an Indian reservation. Two years 
ago it was thrown open lor settlement, and. im- 
mediately the Manitoba Railroad, searching for a 
route to the western coast, pushed its line tlirough 
the heart of the country, from the Devils Lake 
region ot Lakota to Great Falls. A considerable 
portion of the land was promptly taken up by 
settlers, but millions ot acres, largely unsurveyeu, 
are still awaiting entry. This country is in all 
respects similar to that lying north ot it in the 
British possessions, where the No- 1 hard wheat, 
the wheat ot the Red River Valley, is being surely 
and steadily grown. The raintall comes along 
in that portion ot the spring and summer when 
it is needed to mature the crops, and undoubtedly 
this vast country will soon be converted into a 
grainiield. 

Already the coalfields around Great Falls are 
being developed. They extend along the base of 
the Belt Mountains tor sixty miles or more, and 
reach westward tor thirty miles, tlirough what 
is curiously misnamed the band Coulee, almost 
into the city limits of Great Falls. The coal is 
an excellent bituminous product, and it runs in 
a vertical vein of from six to nine feet in thick- 
ness between two shale bands. About 300 tons 
a day are being taken from one mine owned by 
the Manitoba Railroad people, and their locomotives 
use it entirely. Some of it is said to possess the 
coking quality, and it this be true the smelters 
at Great Falls will find their chief dilliculty 
surmounted. The smelting plant is a complete 
and extensive institution, capable of taking the 
ores directly from the mines and reducing them 
to matte. It is supplied with all the work it 
can do, running, albeit, day and night, by the 
rich mines of Neihart and the Coeur d’Alenes. 

L. E. Q. 


XXX. 


THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK. 


HOPES AND ILLUSIONS OF LEADERS. 


DEMOCRATS FIRST SETTLE, THE TERRITORY— 
BUT FREE, WOOL AND SPARKS SETTLE. 

THE STATE. 

Helena, Mont., July 16 . 

Since the recent election at which members of 
the Constitutional Convention were chosen, the 
Democrats in Montana, as well as out, have been 
pleased to do a deal of boastful talking. They 
assure themselves that Montana will organize as 
a Democratic State, will elect a Democratic Gov- 
ernor and Congressman, and a Democratic Legis- 
lature which will send two Democratic Senators to 
Washington. After carefully studying the politi- 
cal situation here, historically as well as with 
relation to the temper of the people upon the 
current topics, I do not believe they will do any 
one of those things. Nothing that has occurred 
since the election of 1838 has proved that the 


Democrats have any more votes than they had 
then, when their candidate for Congress was buried 
under a majority of more than 5,000. It is true 
that Montana theretofore had always been a Demo- 
cratic Territory, and for twenty-five years had 
been sending Democratic delegates to Washington. 
Its first settlers were mostly Democrats. Flocks 
of them from Missouri came up the river with 
every Fort Benton boat as the war was closing, and 
won for themselves in the very first Congressional 
contest that occurred after the Territory was 
organized a description which has clung to them 
ever since. Colonel Wilbur F. Sanders was lead- 
ing the Republican forlorn hope, and he created 
much amusement by protesting on the stump 
against the invasion of Montana “ by the left wing 
of Price’s army.” The Democratic paity is still 
known as “ Price’s left wing,” and, seeing that 
many of its members were actually engaged in tho 
Rebel army, it is surprising how they chafe under 
that allegation, and beg to know if the bloody 
shirt is ever to be waved. Treason played a large 
part in the early politics of Montana. The Stars 
and Stripes, long after the war was ended, were 
hooted at the Democratic mas -meetings and trailed 
in the dust at their parades. The miners in 
Alder Gulch actually voted to call their new 
setttlement Varina in honor of the wife of the 
Rebel President, and Varina it would have been 
but that the only notary in the camp was a Re- 
publican. He declined utterly to write it Varina, 
and at last Virginia City was accepted as a com- 
promise. When the murderous demon Ives was 
captured at Nevada City and summoned before 
the whole town to answer the charges of murder 
and robbery, the most important feature of his 
defence was the charge that Colonel Sanders, 
who was acting as prosecutor, had served in the 
Yankee Army. This was adroitly urged by Ives’s 
friends, moving around among the crowd, in 
complete justification of his crimes. 

From the earliest days of Montana’s settlement 
until 1883, migration into the Territory came from 
a southerly direction. The Missouri River fur- 
nished the only means of entry for many years, 
and when a second was finally obtained it was a 
railroad from Utah and the Union Pacific country. 
Not until the completion of the Northern Pacific 
line was the population of Montana increased by 
any considerable number of people in sympathy 
with Republican ideas. After that event, a new 
impulse was lent to everything, settlers came in 
from the Eastern States and from the great Re- 
publican commonwealths of Wisconsin, Minne- 
sota and Michigan. The valleys were filled up 
with an agricultural population. The cities and 
mining camps doubled and redoubled in size, and 
at one swoop the Democratic party was cut down. 
The Democratic leaders had foreseen this fatal 
blow. In 1884, when their candidate showed 
himself able to muster only a majority of 190, they 
had a warning of what was to come. In the next 
campaign they made a brilliant stroke and suc- 
ceeded in postponing their fate. They made a 
labor cry against the Republican candidate. He 
was one of the counsel of the Northern Pacific, 
which, however, as a corporation, exerted what- 


MONTANA. 


65 


ever strength it did exert against him. That cir- 
cumstance did not in the least affect the Demo- 
cratic plans of an " anti-corporation" campaign. 
The Democrats were quite willing to prolit by the 
Northern Pacific's favor, and, at the same time to 
train their mock guns on capitalists. They shook 
their lists at AD. Oakes, at Henry Villard, at 
Charles Prancis Adams and at everybody else 
supposed to represent corporate strength. They 
made love to the Knights of Labor, and they 
elected their man by something like an old-time 
majority. 

Their happiness endured but for a season. The 
Republican leaders concluded that if the Demo- 
crats wanted a labor issue they should have it in 
dead earnest. Invents at Washington proceeded 
most fortunately for the Republican plan. The 
effect of the proposed A Li 11s bill upon Montana 
products, wool and lead, the course of the Ad- 
ministration with regard to local affairs, the pub- 
lic domain and the timber laws, together with the 
wise and liberal policy of the National Republican 
leaders, all combined to give the Montana Demo- 
crats all the labor issues they wanted. They 
chose for their candidate the successful chairman 
of their last campaign committee, W. A. Clarke, 
of Butte, justly esteemed their strongest and most 
available man. Mr. Clarke was an “ old-timer,” 
a phrase of much significance here. The “ old- 
timers” are those who came here before 1865, who 
organized the Territory and have consistently 
abided with it since. They have a social organ- 
ization of their own, and one of its functions is to 
protect the “ old-timers” from the “ pilgrims” and 
the tende'rfeet. Mr. Clarke had come to Montana 
a day laborer and had dug millions from the 
mountains. He had educated himself. From an 
illiterate miner, he had become a cultivated 
millionaire, spealdng the modern languages and 
reading the ancient ones. He was a great em- 
ployer of labor, and in putting him forward the 
Democrats did their best. The Republican can- 
didate, Thomas H. Carter, was a lawyer. He had 
never been in politics. His residence in the 
Territory had endured for only eight 
years, and to thousands of voters he 
was a stranger. But for the begin- 
ning he made a powerful impression on the people. 
He refused to talk anything but principles. The 
Democrats, he said, had invited a labor campaign, 
and a labor campaign he meant to give them. 
It was a brilliant and exciting struggle, rendered 
all the more so by the great battle that was going 
on throughout the country. If the Republican 
tariff leaders in Congress had laid their plans 
with especial view to the capture of Alontana, if 
the platform adopted at Chicago and the Letter 
of Acceptance of General Harrison had both been 
framed with this o.ne purpose, they could not 
have been more wisely shaped and expressed. 

Lead and wool were among the leading products 
of Montana. Tariff legislation affecting them 
touched ranchmen and miners both. The Mills 
bill put wool on the free list, and reduced the 
tariff on lead ore and lead dross from 1 1-2 cents 
a pound to 3-4 of a cent, and on lead bar from 
2 cents to 1 1-4 cents. It did not take the ranch- 
men and their herders long to figure out where 
they would be left by the reduction of wool to 
the free list. Sheep husbandry would be at once 
destroyed— blotted out! No possible way could 
be found of admsting the wages of herders to the 
scale that would be necessary if the business were 
pursued in competition with the wool-grower of 
Australia and South America, Herders in Mon- 
tana were intelligent Americans earning from 
$30 to $40 a month and their board. Herders in 
South America were either slaves or semi-bar- 
barians, for whoso labor SI o a month was a high 
price. In Australia the price of that labor did 
not go above SI 0, while in both countries it 
went as low as $2 50, and averaged less than 
$7. Moreover, in both those favored lan^s. o™n t . 
ing obtained the year around, while in Montana 
it was necessary to store hay for the winter 


season, and to corral the sheep when the weather 
became severe. The question with the Montana 
wool-growers, then, was whether they should 
vote in favor of Mr. Clarice and help to ruin, 
an industry wherein they had $4o, 000,000 in- 
vested, or in favor of Air. Carter and in aid of 
their business interests. They had seen their 
business suffering since the Alills bijl was pro- 
posed. Woollen goods manufacturers were waiting 
the outcome of the election before purchasing 
supplies. Every ranchman in Aioutana felt that 
Democratic success meant personal disaster. 

The miners, too, were equally alarmed. Not 
only those engaged in producing lead, but all others 
as well, recognized that the Democratic plan struck 
directly at their incomes. Their principal com- 
petitors in mineral production were the miners of 
Spain and Mexico, where labor was worth only 
from 30 to 60 cents a day. The Alontana miner 
commanded S3 50 a day. His earnings enabled 
him to possess his own home, to dress his family 
neatly and well, to supply his table with good 
things and plenty of them, and to send his children 
to school. As one walks about the streets of 
Butte City he is quickly impressed with the 
respectable appearance of the thousands of miners 
he meets. They look like men, men of intelli- 
gence and independence, who know •where their next 
meal is to come from and where they will find a 
bed to sleep in. They understood the situation 
perfectly. Whether they mined in gold at. Marys- 
ville or m copper at Butte, they knew that the lead 
men could not suffer without their suffering too. 
They saw that if the lead men were thrown 
out ot employment, the thousands of lead miners 
would at once be drawn into competition with 
the gold, silver and copper miners, and that the 
inevitable effect would be a reduction of wages 
all around. There could not be a surplus of 
labor without a fall in the price of labor. These 
tariff considerations changed many votes. The 
Democratic leaders had enough perception to see 
that such a result was sure to befall them, but 
what could they do ? They cursed the Adminis- 
tration and poor Mr. Mills, but curses could not 
make votes. They could only run away from the 
fight, or stand up and justify free trade. Some 
of them did run away, but for the most part they 
put on a bold face and tooted the free-trade 
bugle. 

Quite as embarrassing as this controversy was 
that into which they were forced by the course of 
Sparks. Mr. Cleveland’s personal treatment of 
Western men and Western affairs was enough to 
insure his defeat from the Alissouri River to the 
Pacific Ocean. Even before he took office he felt 
called upon to issue a bull anathematizing silver, 
and thereafter with a consistency too steadfast to 
be the result of ignorance or of anything less ob- 
jectionable than a set purpose, he played directly 
into foreign hands. When he took office silver 
was worth $110 an ounce. When he left office it 
was worth but 94 cents. A silver dollar had 
been depreciated even further. If he had acted 
under contract with the British Cabinet he could 
not have served it better. England fixed the price 
of the Montana product and sold it to her Indian 
Government, making a profit on both transactions. 
She bought a dollar’s worth of silver for less than 
a dollar and sold it to India for more than a dol- 
lar. She made millions out of Mr. Cleveland’s 
silver policy, at the same time deprecating the use 
of silver as money and demoralizing its value even 
in our own bi-metallic system. There was nothing 
particularly clever about this on England’s part. 
She simply took advantage of the opportunities 
Mi. Cleveland presented to her. His silver 
position, as I said before, was enough to defeat, 
him. hut what would have been efficient was made 
doubly sufficient by Sparks and his Land Office. 
If Sparks and Jonah had got. into the whale’s belly 
together, no further demonstration against Nineveh 
would have heeu necessary. The whale’s convulsion 
would have done the business. 

Sparks began his crusade by announcing through 


66 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


all the Democratic and Mugwump newspapers that 
the Republicans had been villanously extrava- 
gant, and had been employing at least twice as 
many clerks in the Land Office as were needed. 
Without waiting till he had become acquainted 
with the business oi' his bureau, he began to make 
sweeping discharges. He turned out half of tbe 
force in the mineral department, and at once there 
was trouble. Sales ol land and mining claims wert 
all the while increasing in volume, but the force 
was not ahle to keep up with the work. Parties 
who made proof in full compliance with the law 
three years ago are only now beginningto get their 
patents. These delays caused an amount of anuoy- 
once and financial loss difficult for Eastern people 
to appreciate. But it was in his timber rulings 
that Sparks created the greatest havoc. The law 
ot Congress protides that timber may be cut and 
used from the mineral lands ot the public domain 
for mining and other necessary purposes. The 
minerals are, of course, in the mountains. The 
mountains are covered with trees. To render 
the mines safe for men to work in they must 
be carefully protected by substantial roofs ana 
walls of wood, and an enormous amount of timber 
is required for that purpose. The timber on 
the mountains, of course, is the timber everybody 
uses, and that is the only use to which such 
timlier could possibly be put. It had been held 
by the Arthur Administration that all mountain 
lands in Montana were mineral lands, and that 
left the miners and settlers free to take the 
wood wherever they found it. It gave them a 
plentiful supply, and still left the mountains 
black witb pine trees. Sparks, however, reversed 
all this. He took a view of tbe law first 
promulgated by Carl Schurz when he was Mr. 
Hayes's Secretary of the Interior, a view that 
led to a quarrel with Sir. Blaine, to Schurz’s 
defeat by Mr. Blaine, to the undying love of all 
Montanans for Mr. Blaine and Schurz’s hatred 
of Sir. Blaine. Schurz. in the spirit of a prince- 
ling dealing with his peasants, made the Govern- 
ment a hucksterer of wood. He held that mineral 
lands were only those particular spots in which 
minerals had actually been feund, and that 
any one who took timber from other places with- 
out paying the Government for it should be prose- 
cuted as a thief. Sir. Blaine subjected this ruling 
to merited ridicule and contempt. The miners 
and settlers, he held, who were out here at the 
peril of their lives reducing the wilderness and 
adding wealth to the Nation, ought to be helped 
in every possible 1 way and not harrassed by such 
eilly annoyances. He showed that the 
United States surveys and maps pre- 
pared by sin lied surveyors and engineers 
who had studied the country classified all moun- 
tainous regions in tbe far West as mineral land. 
Mineral land, said Mr. Blaine, is all land that is 
more valuable for mining than for agricultural 
purposes. This is without question the true 
view to take. The mountains are rocky and 
rugged, and of no value whatever save for the 
minerals they contain and the timber upon them. 
The best use to which the timber can he put is 
in getting the minerals out. Law and reason both 
support and justify the demand of the miners and 
settlers that they be permitted to take the timber 
as they need it. and Mr. Blaine secured the pass- 
age of an amendment to the Interior Department’s 
Appropriation hill providing that none of the 
money granted should be used to prosecute actions 
based on the cutting of timber by actual set- 
tlers. 

This action threw Mr. Schurz upon the side 
track, as it were, and furnished him convinc- 
ing proof of Mr. Blaine’s desperate wickedness. 
IBut when Sparks started again upon the same 
petty policy, Mr. Blaine was in private life and 
he had a free rein. Spies weTe sent out to prowl 
around the mountains for evidence against all 
persons who had cut a stick of wood except upon 
their own claims, and hundreds of suits were 
brought against poor fellows whom a 


lawyer’s fee would have beggared. A single one 
of these cases will illustrate them all. A man 
named Clegg, who had been a farm laborer m 
Hlinois, having saved about $50, came out into 
this country with his wife and children ana 
started a little farm under the shadow of the Big 
Horn Mountains. The country around him was 
an utter wilderness, the abomination of desolation 
spoken of by the Prophet. His nearest neighbor 
was twenty-five miles away. The nearest lawyer 
was ninety miles away, but Indians and mountain 
hons, wolves and bears he had ever with him. So 
far as his untutored mind knew, he was doing a 
laudable act. He thought he was carrying the 
banner of his country into the for- 
bidden wilderness and making the wild 
places tame, saying with Tennyson, 
“ More life and fuller, tiiat I want.” He saw for 
10,000 leet above him and for 3o0 miles around 
him nothing but pine trees and stones. He took a 
few of the rocks and a few of the trees from the 
mountain slopes and built him a cabin and a 
stable, a place to hold his grain and his 
roots. , , , 

Well, one fine morning a spruce young fellow, with 
a long cigar, came by on horseback and stopped, 
as he said, for rest. Air. Clegg and Mrs. Clegg and 
all the little Cleggs, overjoyed at the sight of a 
white face, bade him come in, cooked liim a din- 
ner, spread for him their whitest sheets and gave 
him welcome. He asked many questions, and 
pressed Clegg particularly to know where he had 
got the timber with which to build his cabin aud 
nis little outhouses. Clegg told him, ol course. 
Why not? Whereupon tUe spruce young man, 
suddenly becoming awful, informed Mi-. Clegg that 
he was a desperate thief, that he had robbed the 
poor Government, of whose avenging power he, the 
spruce young man, was the mighty and terrible 
impersonation. Mr. Clegg was thoroughly fright- 
ened, and Mrs. Clegg and the little Cleggs began 
to cry. They implored the spruce young man, in 
whom the oh ended majesty of the United States 
was vested, to forgive them. They said they 
didn’t know it was wicked to cut two or three out 
of ten million trees. He said he would take down 
their statement in writing and see what he could 
do for them. They said they couldn’t write, but 
the young man was a gifted young man and 
he could. He put down it all iii his own words, 
That 1, John Clegg, had feloniously taken from the 
non-mineral lands of the United' States so many 
feet of timber, and then he told Clegg he 
was a notary, and bade him swear to 

the affidavit. So Mrs. Clegg brought 

in the lamilv Bible, and Clegg tremblingly made 
oath to what the clerkly young man had written. 
In ike course ol time, the United States Govern- 
ment made Clegg defendant in a suit for damages, 
and dragged him ninety miies from his mountain 
home before an avenging court. Heaven only 
knows bow often he had to make the journey, or 
what solicitude and tears witnessed his goings and 
comings. But when at last it came to trial and 
his lawyer, having had him swear to a statement 
claiming that the mountain slopes from which he 
took the timber were mineral lands, and therefore 
open to the settler’s axe, put that statement in 
evidence, up jumps the sardonic young man with 
Clegg’s former affidavit, the one his own deft finger'- 
had constructed, and proves poor Clegg not only 
an atrocious robber, but a barefaced perjurer! 
Of course, that was all the good it did him, for 
the jury’s verdict in this, as in every other case 
Sparks and his followers had the nerve to bring 
to trial, was a disdainful rebuke to the Govern- 
ment. 

The incident I have narrated, which was one of 
hundreds, serves to throw light upon the wonderful 
change that took place in public sentiment in Mon. 
tana during the four years of Democratic ascend- 
ancy. It helps to explain the majority of 5,126 
by which Mr. Carter was swept into Congress. 

L. E. Q. 


MONTANA. 


67 


XXXI. 


ENLIGHTENED POLICY. 


WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO BUILD UP THE 
INTEKESTS OF THE STATE. 

SHARP PRACTICE OP W4RE PULLERS — THE 

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION—" BOODLE” 
—ROME PARTY LEADERS. 

Helena, Mont., July 19. 

Republican confidence in Montana is based as 
well upon the popular sentiment oi' gratitude for 
what the Republican party has done to encourage 
the Territory’s material interests as upon the 
popular feeling of disgust and anger for what the 
Democratic party did to destroy tlio-e interests. 
The people understand that they owe nothing to 
Cleveland and Springer for the bill which enables 
them to become citizens of the Republic. Such 
efforts as Mr. Carter’s Democratic predecessor put 
forth with relation to the Dakota bills were con- 
fined to an attempt to prevent the people of South 
Dakota from realizing their ambitions. The be- 
lief ol Montana that the election of General Harri- 
son would be the elevation of a friend, of a man 
who had travelled west of the Missouri, who was 
personally and thoroughly familiar with the needs 
of the Western States and with the vastness of 
Montana’s agricultural and mineral resources— this 
faith, since they could nob vote for Harrison him- 
self, was expressed in Mr. Carter’s election. They 
have already seen the material wisdom of the 
course they then pursued, and the difference be- 
tween the two parties in their respect for plighted 
words. The Democratic platform of 1884 promised 
..home rule to the Territories, a promise which 
Mr. Cleveland repeated and emphasized in his 
letter of acceptance. But he sent Montana a Gov- 
ernor from Kentucky, a Chief Justice from Ten- 
nessee, Associate Justices from Texas and Louisi- 
ana, an Assayer from Indiana, Indian Agents from 
all over the South, but not one from Montana, 
employes of ti e Railway Mail Service and in- 
spectors from everywhere except the Territory it- 
self. President Harrison has kept religiously to 
his party’s promise. Every Montana commission 
thus far issued has been made out to a Montana 
man. The attitude of the party and of the Presi- 
dent, as indicated in the Chicago platform and in 
the letter of acceptance, with regard to the silver 
question, is a source of great satisfaction to the 
entire West. Undoubtedly this is the most 
troublesome question standing between the two 
sections of our country. The West is not un- 
reasonable. It simply demands that the value 
of its product shall not be depreciated by the 
action of its own Government. It would be en- 
tirely satisfactory were the Secretary of the 
Treasury to purchase the maximum silver supply 
authorized by the Allison law. The Democrats 
consented to take only what they were compelled 
to take— $2,000,000 a month. It would content 
the silver States were the full limit of S4, 000, 000 


accepted. They look with mingled anxiety and 
commence to the Republican party loHieasui.es 
that will put silver where it snouid be that will 
rentier them independent of the London ma,r- 
^Land that will prevent England from swetnng 
her levenues by operations in a commodity which 
she affects to despise while " bearing” tbif a pur- 
chase, and warmly commends while •• bulling” lor 


Hhiie the opposition to the admission of South 
Dakota was at its height, Delegate Carter visS 
\Y aslnngton the was not then entitled to a se^ri 
ta impress the Republicans with the neceS 
ol accepting an omnibus measure. Hi S worknhr 
only had a good and decided eilect in YVashhiLdon 0 
but it rendered his position at home impreSte* 
At his suggestion many of the most objectionable 
lectures of the original omnibus bill were ex- 
punged, and other improving features were sub" 
stituted, so that in its fimi buo 

unfavorable to Montana's interests. SoTH^s 
VL^J ed ? hc Resident’s signature the lociu 
Democracy at once set <.i. foot a neat iittie scheme 
to capture the Constitutional Convention qm* 
Governor, the Chief Justice and the Secretly 
m la 6 lerrit . or 7> al l appointees of Mr. Cleveland 
in advance of the tame provided by the law issued 
a proclamation dividing the Territorv iatn 
tricts for the election of delegates to the Onn 
stitutional Convention. In lawHd mst ce ?hev 
had no more right to do this than had any otw 
three citizens of the Territory The a n th n-p-> 
they exorcised belonged to their successor^ 
Republican appointees of President Harrison. It 
7 accessary to say that in their apportion- 
ment they took care to render Democratic ascend 
aticy as certain as possible. In their endeavor 
to bring their sure majorities where they would 
be mcst effective and useful, an exceeding 
crooked lot of district boundary lines were made 
The peril in which their scheme stood was a rel 
versal at the hands of Governor White and his 
Republican co-officers. To prevent this, Con- 
troller Durham of the Treasury Department at 
Washington, a holding-over Democrat who was 
ev idently permitted to hold over too long, issued 
an order to the Democratic Secretary in Helena 
directing that he should retain his office until 
his successor’s bond had been approved by Dur 
ham. On the whole, they managed their game 
well. It required a peremptory order from the 
President himself to get out the Democratic 
Secretary, and when that was accomplished the 
time had gone by within which it was possible 
under the law to reform the Territorial districts 


The Republicans, though considerably annoyed 
at finding themselves the victims of a contemptible 
piece of sharp practice, were naturally the less 
disposed to fight about it because in the last 
election they had carried twenty-three of the 
twenty-five districts in which the Democrats had 
shaped the State, and they had no doubt of their 
ability to do it again. They did not think it 
possible for the Democrats so to fix the State 
as to prevent a Republican majority in the Con- 
vention. This feeling of over-confidence was 
the thing that really defeated the Republicans. 
Despite the fact that Springer’s dishonestly partisan 
bill gave the Democrats outright twenty-five 
seats in the convention, and despite the trickery 
by which the Territory was divided, the Repub- 
licans would still have won had they got out 
their votes. They did not work while their 
adversaries exerted all possible effort. Only fifty 
per cent of the November vote was cast in May, 
and the result gave the Democrats a majority of 
five. No serious consequences are apprehended 
by the Republicans by reason of tin's situation. 
It is unfortunate just at this particular time, but 
by no means should it alarm the Republicans 
of the country. Its worst effect will be the 
maintenance of the obnoxious principle of 
minority representation. The Democracy will 
hang oh to that like grim death, for it affords 


68 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


them their only hope of securing a majority in the 
first Legislature. But if they succeed in getting 
it into the Constitution, it will not be upon the 
odious plan devised by Mr. Springer. They may 
adopt the Illinois method of cumulative voting, 
but if they attempt to introduce the Springer 
method of deliberately stealing votes from the 
majority in order to seat a minority candidate 
they will be met quickly and effectually. 

The only possible peril in which the Republicans 
of Montana stand lies in the great wealth of their 
adversaries. Ex-Governor Hauser, Colonel Broad- 
water, .Marcus Daly, W. A. Clarke, Dr. Mitchell, 
“ Sam” Wood-all prominent candidates for the 
United States Senate— are all men of great wealth. 
The millionaire bankers and miners of . Montana 
are Democrats, and their method, whether in 
politics or in business, is the simple method of 
how-much-does-it-take ? They are all large 
employers of labor, and they have never allowed 
any delicate sensibility to stand in the way of 
their knowing how their men vote. Mindful of this 
Democratic proclivity, the last Territorial Legisla- 
ture adopted a registration law and the 
Australian system of voting, and it is under this 
system that the election in October will be con- 
ducted. There is a vein of intellectuality and 
independence among the miners of Montana which 
will be a potent factor in the contest, especially 
when it is thus protested against the warping in- 
fluence of rich and selfish employers. 

The Democratic leaders are not, it must be said, 
on very good terms with each other. They are all 
rivals in business and in politics. Several of 
them do not speak as they pass by. They are 
divided by geography as well as sentiment. They 
all live either in Helena or in Butt.e. Helena is 
on the east side of the main Rocky range, Butte 
on the west. It has been the policy of the 
Helena millionaires to minimize and humiliate 
Butte, to circulate the impression that it is a 
suburb of Helena and a mere mining camp, 
whereas it is no more a suburb of Helena than 
Philadelphia is a suburb of New-York. This 
business jealousy between the rich men of the 
two cities has jaundiced all their other relations, 
and they fuss and fight like a parcel of tomcats. 
In either town the situation is no better. The 
two greatest great men in Helena are Governor 
Hauser and Colonel Broadwater. Tim two 
greatest great men in Butte are Dalv and Clarke. 
The only time Hauser and Broadwater join hands 
is when they are raiding Daly and Clarke. The 
only time Daly and Clarke exchange soft glances 
is when they are thumping Hauser and Broad- 
water. The situation is. therefore, highly inter- 
esting. Mr. Hauser and Mr. Broadwater have 
each his lesser light. Ex-Delegate McGinnis, who 
has served in several Congresses, is fathered bv 
Broadwater. Mr. McGinnis calculates upon being 
the Democratic candidate for Governor and hones 
thence to be lifted into the Senate. The trouble 
with that is. he will come in conflict with the 
Colonel himself a« well as with every other promi- 
nent man in his party. Ex-Delegate Toole is Mr. 
Hauser’s vounger partner in politics, and he. too, 
esteems himself the most available candidate for 
the Governorship, and, of course, for later and 
higher honors. At the recent election for members 
of the Constitutional Convention, Mr. Toole and 
Mr. McGinnis ran on the same ticket. The feeling 
between them was not improved bv that experi- 
ence. It is openly and hotly charged by the 
friends of McGinnis that he was cut bv the 
Hauser-Toole following, so that it might appear 
that Toole was the more popular man. and. ergo, 
the safer candidate for Governor. The returns 
certainly show that McGinnis ran far behind 
Toole in a district where he would 
naturally have led the ticket. Mr. 
Hauser, though appointed Governor for a brief 
term by Cleveland, distinguished himself by rising 
in open rebellion against the Administration as 
to its free -trade policy, and even more particularly 
as to S paries. This renders him all the more 


popular, however, and gives him a handle upon 
which Mr- Broadwater will have difficulty to 
break his grip. 

Another great Democrat on the east side of the 
range is the Hon. Sam. Wood, whose fame is 
chiefly identified with a place called Camos Prairie. 
When Chief Joseph, undoubtedly the greatest 
Indian warrior-general that ever lived, whose 
famous fighting retreat over 1,500 miles of wilder- 
ness rivals the march of Caesar through Gaul, 
had reached the mountains of Montana, a volunteer 
troop was formed in .Virginia City to co-operate 
with General Howard in opposing the Indians. 
Sir. Wood was a prominent member of this troop. 
One night the Indians made a break, and came 
with wildly resounding war-whoops pell-mell upon 
the volunteers. It is said there was a great 
scattering of amateur soldiery. In the campaign 
of 1888 Mr. Wood made a number of ferocious 
speeches, in one of which he brought charges 
against Mr. Carter, the Republican candidate. 
When anybody says rude things about Montana 
Republican it is always left to Colonel Sanders 
to reply. And in this instance the Colonel replied 
so heartily that Mr. Wood was moved to challenge 
him to mortal combat. The Colonel accepted the 
challenge publicly and announced the place of 
meeting and the weapons. “ We will fight,” he 
said. “ on Camos Prairie, and my weapon shall 
be an Indian war-whoop.” It is feared by Mr. 
Wood’s friends that Camos Prairie and the war- 
whoop stand grimly between him and the Senate. 

On the west side of the range Mr. Clarke is un. 
doubtedly a powerful leader of the Democratic! 
host, and the most likely candidate for the Senate. 
His friends were sadly mortified at his defeat 
for Congress in 1888, and they will work the 
more zealously on that account to secure for him 
what he is said often to have declared to be the 
summit, of his ambition. His rivals include Dr. 
Mitchell, Washburne Stapleton, whose greatest 
drawback is his eminent respectability, and Mr. 
W. W. Dixon, frequently styled “ the frigid bar- 
rister of Butte.” Dr. Mitchell is a strong man 
in his party. He is the sort of man who could 
go into a saloon in the earliest and rudest days 
without fear of insult,. A considerable part of 
his wealth has been derived as the keeper of a 
Territorial lunatic asylum, in which enterprise he 
has been continuously subsidized by public con- 
tracts. These westside tempters of political fort- 
une all stand as trembling supplicants for sym- 
pathy, support and favor in the presence of Mar- 
cus Daly. Mr. Daly is the manager and one of the 
four proprietors of the Anaconda mining inter- 
prise. The Anaconda Company owns the greatest 
and most, profitable mining plant in the world, 
and Mr. Daly, a big-brained Irishman, who began 
life in the West as a S3 miner, is the life of it 
all. He made the mine what it is, he established 
a smelting plant that is the wonder and admira- 
tion of mining experts, he founded a city, and is 
to-day the head and front of a business that 
employs 5,000 men. Daly has been charged with 
unalterable fealty and treacherous conduct by 
prominent Democrats on both sides of the range, 
according as his indifference and aggressive sup- 
port happened from one election to another to 
affect their individual fortunes. In the present 
situation he keeps his own counsel and beyond 
announcing that he is not himself a candidate 
for the Senate or anything else, which is believed 
or not just as people prefer, he maintains an 
attitude of inscrutable reserve. 

The Republicans are not, troubled with ambitious 
and warring leaders. They are united, and in 
dead, aggressive earnest. The talk about Russell 
Harrison having compromised the situation by 
interferences of one kind or another is a ridiculous 
lie. As a lie it has utterly failed of its purpose. 
It was so persistently repeated, and with such 
particularity, that not knowing Mr. Harrison I 
at, first supposed there must be something in it. 
But the people \ec« know him and they know 


MONTANA. 


69 


tbe etory to be absurdly false. Mr. Harrison 
has behaved discreetly. He is now in Europe 
on a business errand, and he has no notion of 
meddling in Montana affairs. His residence is in 
Helena, and he modestly hopes he will be per- 
mitted to vote, when the time comes, for his 
party’s candidates. As to the personnel of the 
Republican ticket, nothing is- settled. Mr. Carter 
will, of course, lend his name to the ticket either 
as the candidate fo(r Governor or for Congress, 
and the Democrats concede that he cannot be 
beaten. The most loved, most feared Republican 
in Montana is Colonel Sanders, and it is generally 
supposed that his election to the Senate will 
follow that of a Republican Legislature as a matter 
of course. If it does it will be happy for each 
of them that he and Mr. Ingalls are on the same 
side of the House, for a cleverer, sharper, wittier, 
keener man never used tongue. His phrases are 
by-words in Montana. Thie Colonel rather resents 
the imputation of having a bitter tongue. He 
remarked in a public address upon one occasion 


that it was all a mistake. “ If I were to stand 
here,” he said, “ and urge the saving grace of 
‘ clean hands and a pure heart,’ Dan Fleury would 
race up and down the streets vowing that I was 
slandering the ‘ left wing of Price’s army.’ If 
I were now to lift my reverent eyes to Heaven 
and solemnly repeat the Lord’s Prayer, Sam, 
Hauser would thlrow up his protesting hands and 
say, ‘What sarcasm!’” Other candidates for 
Republican favor, and admittedly deserving ones, 
whose reputations are by no means confined to 
Montana, are Governor White, the present Execu- 
ive, L. H. Herschfield, whose sagacious and success- 
ful work as chairman of the Republican Committee 
that had charge of the victory of 1888 brought 
great applause and devotion from hosts of Repub- 
licans; T. C. Power, Captain James H. Mills, of 
Deer Lodge, and Lee Mantle, of Butte. There 
is no lack of material and it is all the kind of 
material that will do honor to the new State. 

L E. Q. 


70 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


WASHINGTON. 


xxxn. 


THE EASTERN BELT. 


SPOKANE FAELS AND THE GREAT PLAINS OF 

THE COLUMBIA. 

ENTERPRISE AND FORESIGHT REWARDED BY 
WONDERFUL GROWTH AND PROSPERITY. 

Spokane Falls, W. T„ July 26. 

It is conceded by geologists that all of our 
country west of the Rockies is comparatively new. 
The Pacific Ocean, some few ages ago, washed 
the western side of this mighty uplift. The 
Sierras of California and the Cascades of Wash- 
ington and Oregon attained their present eleva- 
tion after a series of subterranean struggles, and 
with them the vast areas now constituting our 
Pacific States were brought forth from watery 
confines. It has not been many years since the 
great volcanoes of the Cascade Range ceased to 
Bhow signs of internal agitation. There are 
people now living in Portland who claim to have 
seen smoke issuing from the crater of Mount Hood 
at one time or another within the last ten years. 
But these lofty peaks are practically extinct. 
They are responsible, actively or passively, for 
almost all the physical conditions of the new 
State of Washington. In shape Washington is a 
parallelogram, its longer axis running east and 
west from the coast to the Idaho boundary. The 
Cascades cut it in twain. Maine does not more 
widely differ from California than do the sections 
thus created. They are different in soil, in 
climate, in vegetation and in the resources offered 
to human endeavor. The mountains condense the 
atmospheric moisture on their windward, or west- 
ern, side, producing for more than half the year 
a constant succession of rainfalls and a mighty 
forest that covers the country from the mountains 
to the sea, while the leeward land, deprived of 
moisture, is for many miles, or until relieved of 
its mountain blanket, a forlorn and dreary desert. 
West of the mountains the soil is a deep vegetable 
mould, produced by the decay of fallen timbers, 
with a top-dressing of alluvial deposit on the tide- 
lands of the coast. East of the mountains the 
soil is basaltic, while the desert area is one vast 
lava bed. West of the mountains the climate is 
mild, and the seasons are described with relation 
to the rainfall. East of the mountains the climate 
is colder, almost exactly like that of New-York, 
for, though higher in latitude, its natural severity 
is tempered by the warm Pacific winds. 

These differences between East Washington and 
West Washington need to be emphasized, for they 
affect the people in all their affairs. The in- 
terests of one section are rarely the interests of 
the other. All through this immense country I 
have been deeply impressed with the wonderful 
elasticity of our political system. From the 95th 
meridian to each of the boundary oceans is about 


j the same distance. A line drawn from that 
meridian, near the Dakotas, to the Pacific would 
j pass through four States. Drawn to the At- 
lantic it would pass through nine. In the matters 
} of climate and topography there are as many rea- 
sons for dividing the Western States into small com- 
monwealths as for so dividing the Eastern ones 
It is remarkable how harmoniously communities 
thus remotely placed from each other live under 
the same local government, and especially re- 
markable because every individual town is steadily 
and fiercely struggling in. furtherance of the 
common ambition to be the business centre of 
the State. Two great Western Cities, Denver and 
St. Paul, btand out as brilliant examples of what 
industry and sagacity can do, and every little 
liamiet burns witn the spirit of emulation, ibey 
ail have somebody in them who knew Denver and 
St. Paul when their only tenants were jack- 
rabbits and rattlers. Somebody is always talk- 
ing about the time when he was offered a third 
oi Denver or a half of St. Paul for the price of a 
bulialu robe. Somebody, as he lounges iu the 
hotel of an evening, is sure to be reminiscent of 
the days when be ranged his cattle in what ia 
now Kansas City, or sold the whole of Omaha 
lor a couple of cuyuses. These tales of wondrous 
chances to grow rich, had the tellers cl them but 
possessed the divine faculty of foreknowledge, are 
told by the million, and it must 
j be owned they are more or less disturbing. 

| When you look around and see from every pin- 
point of the compass a hundred large and thriv- 
ing cities that have grown up from a sagebrush 
prairie or a pine thicket within the last ten 
years it makes you wonder not a little whether 
the spot you happen to be standing on may not 
be an embryo metropolis, where the land you can 
buy to-day for $10 an sere might be sold to-mor- 
row lor $1,000 a front foot. 

Foi tunes have been made in Spokane Falls} 
are yet being made, upon just that scale of vajues. 
Spokane’s history— oh, by the way, call it Spo-k-n, 
if you please, as though it rhymed with ban or 
tan, not with gain or lane, and put the accent 
on the last syllable— Spokane’s history, as I was 
saying, is almost incredible. When Mr. Hayes 
was inaugurated it was a blank wilderness. Not 
1 a single civilized being lived within a hundred 
1 miles of it. One day in 1878 a white man came 
along in a “ bull team,” saw the wild rapids and 
j the mighty falls of the Spokane River, reflected 
on the history of St. Paul and Minneapolis with 
their little Falls of St. Anthony, looked at the 
tide of immigration just turning toward the fur- 
ther Northwest, and concluded he would sit right 
down where he was and wait for a city to grow 
around him. This far-sighted pioneer is still liv- 
ing within earshot of those rumbling falls, and 
they make a cheerful music to him. The city is 
there with him, 22,000 people, and he can draw a 
check to-day good for $1,000,000. For several 
years his eyes fell on nothing but gravel beds and 
foamy waters. Now as he looks around he sees 
mills and factories, railroad lines to the north, 
south, east and west, churches, theatres, school- 
houses, costly dwellings and stores, paved streets, 
and all that makes living easy and comfortable. 
The greater part of this has come within his 
vision since 1883, when the Northern Pacific blew 
its first whistle in Spokane. But even 
then there was quite a village. After 
this earliest pioneer had spent a lonely 
year or two on his homestead two other men 
came along. They were friends who, upon an 
outing, had chanced to meet. They were capti- 
vated by the waterfall and by what the pioneer 
told them of the fine farming lands in the adja- 
cent country, and they offered each to take a 
third of his holding. Then they began to adver- 
tise and to place adventurous farmers on home- 
stead claims. They were wise in their day and 


WASHINGTON. 


71 


generation, and they worked harder to 
till the country with grain producers 
than to sell real estate around the 
falls. They soon had their reward. It came 
with the railroad. Into Spokane, as into every 
other town along this route, great or small, the 
Northern Pacific has introduced a stream of settle- 
ment. It was well taken care of. The mer- 
chants were quickly provided with store-houses, 
rental values were kept low, every inducement 
was offered that could possibly stimulate building 
activity, and in three years the farming country 
was made to perceive that, Spokane was its natural 
point of entry and of shipment. The turbulent 
waters of the Spokane River, a clear and beauti- 
ful mountain stream, were caught above the falls 
and directed wherever the factories and mills 
that had been established above them required 
their services. Four large flouring mills quickly 
took advantage of the rich opportunity growing 
out of this unique situation. From two enormous 
agricultural areas they are enabled to draw their 
supplies of grain, flour, therefore, beinjr manu- 
factured for the farmers more cheaply at Spokane 
than anywhere else. This circumstance alone ex- 
ercised a large influence in giving the new town a 
hold upon the country districts. These consti- 
tute more than a region— they are really a grand 
division of the State, and form what is known as 
the Great Plain of the Columbia River. Grim and 
unpromising as is the aspect presented by this 
high plateau, it is really one of the chief agri- 
cultural districts of the Pacific States. It ex- 
tends from Walla Walla northward along the 
Spokane River to the Idaho line, and is bounded 
on the south by the Oregon line. Its southern 
portion, known as the Palouse Valley, was par- 
tially settled many years ago. but the northern, 
or Great Bend country, has only known the touch 
of the plomrh and harro’w since the arrival of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad. This great plateau to- 
day contains a population of not less than 60,000, 
scattered over an area of 20,000 square miles. 

Every kind of crop is grown upon the plain, 
though its greatest staple is wheat. A moderate 
estimate of the yield is twenty-five bushels to the 
acre. The cost of producing it certainly cannot 
exceed twenty-five cents a bushel. Farmers who 
hire all their labor, whose personal relation to 
their agricultural enterprises is merely that of 
overseer, show me their books, wherein it 
appears that they realize an average 
profit, of five dollars an acre for all the 
wheat they grow. Fertility is present here in as 
many phases as in other countries, and some of the 
land is quite arid: but on the whole there is a 
sufficient rainfall for the production of wheat 
over practically the entire plateau. Irrigation, 
which would be exceedingly difficult anyhow, ow- 
ing to the high altitude of the country above the 
water levels, is not deemed at all necessary. In 
a constantly growing measure the yield of this 
vast country is finding its best and largest market 
in Spokane. And now that the people of that 
town, by virtue of financial sacrifices which com- 
ment’ most creditably upon their local patriotism 
and their courage, have secured a number of rail- 
road lines penetrating into the richer portions of 
the plain and connecting it with the two great 
Pacific trunk lines, they will have full control 
of all that is produced. 

Much sagacity has been shown by the people of 
Spokane in the' railroad relations they have been 
enabled to establish. It would not be too much 
to say that to obtain these connections they have 
yielded up the entire profits of the last two years. 
A line is now rapidly being built directly across 
the State, connecting Spokane with Seattle and 
Seattle with the Canadian Pacific. Another line 
penetrating into Canada runs from Spokane along 
the Columbia River, through a valley rich in 
agricultural products, in minerals, in coal, and in 
timber, through to the Kootenai mining district 
in British Columbia. Another line extending 
southward, connects Spokane with the Union 


Pacific, and gives the city all the advantages 
that will proceed from intimate business relations 
with Denver and Salt Lake. Still a fourth line 
runs along the witching Coeur d’Alene into the lead, 
and silver mines that have reached such a high 
and profitable state of development. These mines 
extend over a comparatively limited area. They 
are close together, and their ores, producing gold, 
silver and lead, are all similar. Their output 
for the last three years has been quite remarkable, 
and has placed the Coeur d’Alene district among 
the foremost lead producing regions in the couu. 
try. Gold, associated with iron, and treated by 
the free-milling process, is largely found in the 
northern part of the district, but the greatest 
amount of tonnage is derived from, the southern 
country, where the galena silver mines, a dozen 
or more in number, have been discovered. That 
minerals in large quantity existed in this country 
has been known for years. But the want of 
railroad facilities for a long while prevented 
any serious effort to get at them. The matter 
of transportation is now laid at rest, and within 
the last three years a million dollars has been 
spent in development. The returns have already 
more than justified the investment. 

Tributary to Spokane and reached by the vari- 
ous railroads now in operation are five other min- 
ing districts, at Colville, Okanagan, Kootenai, 
Metaline, and Pend d’Oreille. They are in various 
stages of development, but their wealth and avail, 
ability have been clearly ascertained. Spo- 
kane’s population, in a degree greater than 
that of most all these new cities, consists^ of 
young men and young women from the New-Eng- 
land and Middle States. They have enjoyed a 
remarkable and wholly uninterrupted period of 
prosperity. Some of them have grown quickly 
and immensely rich from real estate operations, 
but the great majority have yet to realize on their 
investments because of the large sacrifices they 
have made in building up the city. They are to- 
day in an admirable position. As they have made 
money they have spent it; spent it in street rail- 
roads, in the laying-out of drives, in the building of 
comfortable h -uses, in the establishment of elec- 
trical plants, and in a large number of local im- 
provements, every one of which has borne its part 
in making the city attractive. I suppose that the 
pecnle of Spokane own a larger part of the taxable 
property in the city than is the case with the 
residents of any other town in the Northwest ex- 
cept Helena. Tuey are by no means unmindful 
of the advantages afforded them by foreign capi- 
tal, but they have not waited for it. They have 
gone right ah“->d and done for themselves. _ Their 
needs as to the city are still great and conspicuous. 1 
They need hotels; they need manufactories; they 
need wholesale houses, and. if one can judge from 
superficial appearances, a great variety of enter- 
piises might to-day be profitably established in this 
new community. Such of them as the people 
actually feel in need of they are willing to do much 
to obtain. In New-York, Boston and Philadelphia 
one hears a great many complaints about the want 
of opportunity for the safe and profitable invest- 
ment of capital. If the people who have capital 
only realized what they could do with it out here 
by wise and sensible operations, there would bo 
very little of that sort of complaint. 

Eastern Washington is going to be of itself a 
great State. It possesses in the ground and in the 
spirit of its people all the resources that are nec- 
essary to make a powerful and useful Common- 
wealth. Beyond the sea that washes its western 
shore it has a limitless market. Already its grain 
is being shipped to the Oriental countries, and the 
time is not far distant when Asia -will have been 
wrested as to its trade from the exclusive grasp of 
England, and when every single grain of wheat, 
corn and barley that is not needed for the home 
consumption of these people themselves will be 
sent from Puget Sound into the great markets of 
China and Japan. 


72 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


XXXHI. 


. AT PUGET SOUND. 

LUMBERMEN , MINERS AND AGRICULTURISTS 

BUSY. 

REMARKABLE FREQUENCY OF FIRES THIS 

SEASON— RICH RESOURCES AND ADVANTA- 
GEOUS SITUATION OF WASHINGTON. 

Seattle, W. T., August 8. 

There is something the matter with the atmos- 
phere out here this season. For breathing pur- 
poses it is splendid, dry, cool and inspiring, but 
it seems to set everything on fire. Don’t you re- 
member after the burning of Chicago how the 
scientific people used to figure up the abnormal 
percentage of electricity in the atmosphere on the 
plains of Hlinois; how they used to allege that 
spontaneous combustion was almost inevitable 
when such an extraordinary charge of electricity 
existed in the air ? There must be a condition 
similar to that in this country at the present time. 
Not only have three large, thriving cities been 
destroyed by fire, but it is estimated that more 
timber has been burned from the mountains during 
the past two months than has been cut by miners 
and settlers since the discovery of Alder Gulch 
and the settlement of Montana and Washington. 
The sun has not been clearly visible on account 
of the smoke in the air since the first of July, 
and on some days, though not a single cloud ob- 
scured the sky, the only appearance presented by 
the sun was that of a little red, round ball. How 
many million feet of timber have been destroyed 
it is impossible to calculate, but it has certainly 
been enough to supply the whole United States 
with firewood for the entire winter. 

There are many theories as to how forest fires 
begin, and all of them are probably correct. That 
is to say, the fires are started in a variety of ways. 
The Indians are criminally careless. During this 
season of the year they -js pend a great deal of time 
in the woods, and it is nothing to them whether 
the forests burn down or not. When they break 
camp they leave their fires burning on the ground 
and go heedlessly away. White men, in many in- 
stances, do the same thing. Sparks from engines, 
too, are the frequent agencies by which 
great and ruinous fires are started. Once well 
started, and under a good brisk wind, there is 
no way of stopping them. Vast quan- 
tities of timber grow upon the moun- 
tains between the rocks, where their opportunity 
to secure a good hold in the earth is poor and in- 
sufficient, and after they have attained a certain 
growth they fall. They rarely rot because the 
atmosphere is so dry, and, full of rosin, they lie 
there and become as dry as chips— just the fuel 
for which the advancing flames are looking. In 
their spectacular phase, forest fires are magnifi- 
cent. It almost seems as if they took deliberate 
aim at the monster trees and selected their victims 
as the sharpshooter, perched upon an eminence, 
selects his. They run along the ground and at- 
tack the trees from the bottom, soaring upward. 
They spring from branch to branch, consuming 
everything in their way, running in as many 
directions and with as many caprices as an elec- 
tric current. They produce a terrific heat which 


nothing can withstand, and against which it would 
require an army of men to conduct a successful 
battle. 

In the forests around Puget Sound extraordi- 
nary efforts are put forth, first to prevent and 
then to control the flames. A system of espionage 
is attempted whereby it is hoped to ascertain when 
fires break out, and gangs of men are sent into 
the burning district. They take positions in front 
of the fire at a considerable distance away, and 
as rapidly as possible they clear off the timber. 
Sometimes they burn it off. They employ every 
possible method to create or clear a space in the 
path of the advancing fire, so that when it 
reaches the clearing it will have nothing to feed 
on. This is a plan pursued in the forests of Ger- 
many and Switzerland ; but there men are abund- 
ant, and compared with these, the forests are 
small. Here it is impossible to procure a suffi- 
cient number of men to deal effectually with the 
catastrophe, and often before they are arrived and 
prepared to do anything thousands of the largest 
and finest trees in the Sound country are reduced 
to charred and useless masses. Memorials have 
been sent to Congress frequently in the hope that 
some Federal action would be taken under the di- 
rection of the Secretary of the Interior to protect 
the timber of the public lands from destruction, 
but they have not been accompanied by any use- 
ful suggestions. It has not been shown what 
Congress ceald do, or in wisdom should at- 
tempt to do. The forests are, however, the Na- 
tion's. They do not belong to these people out 
here, and certainly men cannot be expected to 
spend their fortunes protecting the property 
that belongs to somebody else. That something 
shjnld be done is plain enough. 

The Puget Sound country is old and well known. 
Its earliest settlers came to it from California, 
making their way northward along the Pacific 
Coast. They investigated the resources of the 
whole Territory west of the Cascade Mountains 
and have long known of its mineral deposits and 
its wonderful lumbering opportunities. Until the 
railroads came in, however, few people attempted 
to live and do business so many miles from mar- 
ket. Considerable coastwise trade in logs, boards 
and shingles had been created and several mills 
had been started along the Sound. To-day their 
name is legion. They are already doing a re- 
markable trade with China, Japan and Corea, and 
it is in the direction of the setting sun that the 
Teople of this country are looking for their future 
wealth. They exrect soon to monopolize the Rus- 
sian. Janane-e. Chinese and Indian trade that goes 
to the British and the Dutch. The importations 
of the Asiatic coast amount to about $300,000,000, 
the greater part of which is absorbed by England. 
The tendency cf this trade is already toward our 
Pacific Stages, and, with proner oceanic connec- 
tions, we should soon secure practically the whole 
of it. The saving in distance would of itself be 
decisive in our favor. The nature of Asiatic com- 
mercial demands is also in onr interest. It in- 
cludes such staples as canned goods, cheap cotton, 
flour, meats, lumber, agricultural implements and 
other mechanical devices. These are the things 
the Asiatics are buying, and these are the things 
in which Enclnnd cannot, comncte with us. All 
that is needed to bring the bulk of this trade to 
Puget, Sound is a sufficiently large fleet to handle 
it. The sentiment in Washington Territory in 
favor of protective shipping laws is therefore over- 
whelming. All the reonle ask is that, since Eng- 
tand gives such enormous bounties to her trans- 
pacific fleets, the United States shall at least make 
conditions even and equal, so far as to render it 
difficult for English shins to secure American 
goods as their freight. ITiey ask. in other words, 
that the transportation of American manufactures 
end produce shall he reserved for American bottoms 
by shipping laws that will place foreign vessels 
at a disadvantage. 

As ranidly ns the forests around Seattle are 
being cleared away the farmers are flocking in to 
improve the land. The same soil that grows trees 


WASHINGTON. 


73 


ten lett m diameter and 200 feet in height will 
also grow the best hops, the best fruits, the 
sweetest corn, the largest potatoes, the juiciest 
pears and the reddest currants, it is a son that 
centuries of fallen and decayed vegetation have 
rendered of the highest fertility. Western Wash- 
ington is not, nor will it soon be, a crop-growing 
country. The timber that covers it, lor at least 
a century yet, must furnish to its people their 
chief means of support. The logging camps arc 
frequent throughout the timuer chstrict, anu they 
present a scene of strange activity. Monster logs, 
shot through a sort of trough down the mountain 
sides to a convenient point, are borne by bull teams 
to the camps, dressed and hurried oft to the mins 
on the bound. The logman’s axe is a discriminat- 
ing tool, it does not take ordinary timber ; it 
looks lor trees only of the iinest quality, of the 
rarest straightness and of tne greatest power. 
These, shipped under the common name of Oregon 
pine, are sent into every part of the habitable 
world. They furnish masts to the shipbuilders of 
England, of Trance, of Northern Af rica, and even of 
Spanish and Southern America. They are shipped 
in great numbers to Chili, and hundreds are sent 
every year straight across the Pacific into the 
lands of the Orient. The substructure of this 
country is a coal formation, which in many places 
has been profitably worked. And the coal mines 
of West Washington to-day afford a large part of 
the people’s revenues. They spread over a consider- 
able territory, within which from fifteen to twenty 
workable mines have been found. Some of them 
are line and hard, with a sufficient surplus of car- 
bon to entitle them to be called anthracite. Some 
-of them are fair bituminous coals, while others 
must be classed, for want of a better term, as lig- 
nite. A few of them will coke admirably. The 
value of this discovery is not easily appreciated 
unless one lives in a mining country, where the 
great smelters eat up coal and coke at so fearful 
a rate. The heaviest expense of a smelter is for 
coke, and when a coal is found that can be con- 
verted into a good, fair coke it is as much prized 
as a new gold mine. The depth of the coal seams 
intc the earth is known in many cases to be as 
much as 15,000 feet, and as there are no less than 
eight large coal groups, or coal fields, in Washing- 
ton, the people feel comparatively safe as to the 
extent of their fuel supply. Large bodies of iron 
ore, one of them possessing a magnetic quality, are 
ound in the Cascade Mountains, and several of then 
are already being worked at an elaborate profit. 
That large bodies of iron suitable to the manu- 
facture of steel are in existence in the Cascade 
Mountains, and require merely a test of the pro- 
cesses by which the ore can be saved with little 
waste of tailings, is an undoubted and a very com- 
forting fact. It is not thought that any consid- 
erable quantity of the more precious metals he 
in paying quantities in the Cascades, but a con- 
tinual and unfailing fortune is assured to the State 
by the discoveries already made of iron and coal. 

Washington is rich in natural resources, is 
fortunate in climate, and is particularly fortunate 
in situation. This American Mediterranean on 
which Seattle and Tacoma stand, of itself offers 
advantages of commerce too great and far-reach- 
ing to be estimated yet. Seattle was the first of 
the Puget Sound cities to appreciate what might 
be accomplished in foreign commerce, and she still 
holds a commanding position in the great struggle 
after Oriental wealth. The disaster she met with 
a few months ago, while it dealt a cruel blow to 
her people, has not been felt as any great obstacle 
to their progress. Rapidly the city is being built 
anew. No appreciable fraction of her population 
has been lost. Money has been plentifully sup- 
plied from New-York and other Eastern cities 
with which to rebuild the town, and it will rise 
within another year to a commercial, a social, a 
political and a municipal eminence that it has 
never held before. But for the fire, some people 
sav, the census of 1890 would have shown 35,000 
inhabitants in the city limits of Seattle. It will 


probably not show less than that anyhow, and at 
the rate of growth possible to a town containing so 
much energy and self-confidence and surrounded 
by so many natural opportunities, Seattle will 
prove herself before the present generation has 
passed away to be a second San Francisco. 

L. E. Q. 


XXXIV. 


SOME ASPECTS OF OLYMPIA. 


A CITY OF VERDURE AND PRETTY HOMES. 


WESTERN TOWNS AND THEIR AMBITION TO BE 
SEATS OF GOVERNMENT— OEYMPIA’S 
GROWTH AND PROSPECTS— 

PUGET SOUND. 

Olympia, W. T., August 17. 

That which most grieves and disturbs an Eastern 
man travelling through the West is the absence of 
deciduous trees. Only upon the mountains, in- 
deed, and along the river courses does he find 
natural timbers of any kind, and these are con- 
fined to a few cottonwoods and scrub willows 
where the water flows, and upon the mountains 
to gnarled and knotty pines. Few realize how 
fond they are of the natural charms that beautify 
their homes until they visit distant places where 
those charms are denied them. Then they are 
astonished to discover away down in their hearts 
a variety of sweet and tender sentiments, of the 
existence of which they had scarcely a suspicion. 
Then they begin to realize what Paine meant when 
he sang of his lowly thatched cottage and of the 
birds singing sweetly that came at his call. They 
6ee lots of lowly thatched cottages, but the 
vegetation around them is strange. It lacks the 
bright green that so greatly beautifies and adorns 
their own lowly thatched cottages. They 6ee 
beautiful birds, whose songs are fascinating, but 
they lack the tones and the melodies of the birds 
that came at their call. 

It was with a sense of relief, so profound as to 
be incapable of description, that I first saw the 
town of Olympia, the pretty little capital of Wash- 
ington Territory. In wanderings that had ex- 
tended over many thousands of miles I had vis- 
ited a hundred wonderful places that human en- 
terprise had reared where nature apparently had 
no intention or desire that a town should exist. 
I had been tremendously impressed with the 
creative power of the human intellect and the 
human hand. I had seen cities builded almost 
under my very eyes ; had 6een great rocks dug 
from the mountains and transformed into build- 
ing-stones and placed one on top of the other 
until it seemed as if a magician’s hand had reared 
a magnificent building between night and morn- 
ing. I had gone over a great railroad system, 
running almost in a straight line over river, 
around lake, across plain, and through mountains ; 
a railroad system as powerful and impressive as the 
mysterious and magnificent land through which 
it ran. I had seen its trains discharge all those 
comforts and conveniences that make existence 
pleasant in the East. I had seen those grateful 
luxuries deposited in newly built homes, which 
were rendered as delightful as any to be found 
elsewhere. I had feasted my eyes on the rarest 


74 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


scenic elfects that nature in whatever mood— 
aunaole, tenner, gloomy, terrible— nad ever been 
minded to create. Hut until i saw Olympia I had 
never seen the honeysuckle growing, tne apple 
trees in blossom, biren trees sweeping the suy, 
oaks spreading their delightful shade over la.vn 
and held. Wnen at last r came upon this de- 
lightful little village, with its verdure-dressed 
trees, quaint homes with their whitewashed fronts 
and their green shutters, i saw something tnat 
had long been missed. 

Olympia is a type of the older cities of Wash- 
ington. it has a graveyard, and while graveyards 
may not seem to be the most desirable feature of 
a community, and while it may not be reckoned 
worth while to undergo any considerable sacrifice 
in order to acquire a graveyard, yet there was 
something about this home of the dead that seemed 
to lend age and respectability to the town, and 
that seemed to entitle it to that reverence which 
no other place I had visited had inspired. Its 
little churches wore the stains of age anti were 
overgrown with ivy vines, and their bells had a 
mellow sound and lacked the ciangy newness that 
characterizes the tones of the bells in other cities. 

Olympia has grown during the last twenty 
years, but it has grown slowly, and to-day con- 
tains scarcely more than 5,000 people. The 
scenery around it is beautiful. The arm of that 
exquisite water, blue and green with the ocean’s 
brine, and yet as clear and pellucid as a mountain 
stream, comes inward from the Sound as if on 
purpose to wash the shores around which Olympia 
clusters. You can look far down into the depths 
of this glassy water and see the starlisli clinging 
to the rocks and moving their red-mottled arms 
slowly here and slowly there as they creep up and 
down and into the Sound’s soft bed. You can see 
mallards, tame and fearless, riding on the water 
almost within reach of the fishermen as they sit 
in their boats. You can see tbe lofty tops of the 
Olympic Mountains, the light clouds circling 
round them, hugged about with snowy shawls, 
ranging far to the north and far to the south be- 
tween the Soundland and the coast. Back from 
the town you can see the waterfall tumbling over 
rocky steps, and still further back, the mighty pine 
thickets with their timbers rising two hundred 
feet in a straight line skywards. 

Olympia is a city of homes. Its people do not 
claim to be a great commercial community. It 
is the capital, and but little else. I liave been 
much surprised to find how slightly the Western 
eople are impressed with the lesson invariably to 
e drawn from the history of capital cities. In 
the four new States every town with a thousand 
inhabitants wants to be the capital, and offers to 
mortgage itself up to its ears in order to secure 
that honor. None of them seems to understand 
how the possession of a capitol is really a curse to 
the community; how it almost invariably stifles 
commercial activity: how it produces an atmos- 
phere surcharged with all the moral poisons dis- 
seminated by certain varieties of politics that 
always cluster around capitols. They forget to 
compare Albany with New-York, Harrisburg with 
Philadelphia, Dover with Wilmington, Springfield 
with Chicago, Columbus with Cincinnati, Lincoln 
with Omaha, Lansing with Detroit, Madison with 
Milwaukee, Sacramento with San Francisco, Jef- 
ferson City with St. Louis. They forget that in 
no instance in which the capital city of the State 
is also its leading commercial city is that effect in 
the slightest degree due to its possession of a 
capitol. 

Olympia, like all other capitals, possesses a 
charming official society and all those aristocratic 
elements which belong to official life. As a com- 
munity it exerts a powerful influence upon the 
Territory; an influence of which it is exceedingly 
jealous. It is partaking in a considerable degree 
of the remarkable prosperity which Washington, 
both east and we-t of the Cascades, is now enjoy- 
ing. This prosperity is well illustrated by the 
increase of the taxable property during the last 


two years. The aggregate valuation in 1888 
reached $85, 000,000, more than $23,000,000 in 
excess of the valuation of 1887. It had increased 
4 00 per cent in ten years, and will undoubtedly; 
reach at the close of tne present year $125,000,000. 
ibis wonderful movement forward has character- 
ized every county throughout the length and 
breadth of the Territory. Washington has been 
much favored by the Northern Pacific Railroad. 
The officials of that great corporation have made 
exception'll efforts to induce immigration into the 
country, and into Eastern YV asking-ton especially. 
T’ney nave practically lilled up the surveyed part 
or me State. 

Washington has not been entirely grateful to 
the railroad. A railroad war has been in progress 
lor a series of years, and has done mucii to dis- 
courage tbe settlement of certain parts of the 
country where public feeling was inimical to the 
load, lbe trouoie arose, as it arises everywhere 
along the line of a subsidized road, from the laud 
grant, the railroad company endeavored to make 
all the money it could out of the sale of its lands. 
It laid cud town sites just beyoud the present site 
of an already organized municipality and en- 
dea\ored to build up a new city to its own profit-, 
ft aiso made rates lor passenger and freight! 
traffic favorable to the towns of its own creation 
and discriminating against those that had been 
in existence beiore its arrival. 'This was un- 
doubtedly a bad policy, but it was hardly an un- 
natural one. It was not pursued, either, to any 
considerable extent. Though it bore heavily upon 
a lew communities, it by no means justified the 
widespread popular resentment which was awak- 
ened in Washington. The feeling for or against the 
railroad entered into politics, into business, really 
into social life. The man who permitted himself to 
be branded as a friend of the Northern Pacific could 
not run for public office, and was with the greatest 
difficulty elected to the position of vestryman. 
The larger-minded and further-sighted people 
were inclined to overlook the sins of the railroad, 
knowing as they did, that the State depended abso- 
lutely upon the Northern Pacific and its success 
for every element of prosperity. They suggested 
compromises; they sought to allay public feeling; 
they made themselves a go-between and sought to 
smooth over the ruffled feathers of the offended 
populace on the one hand, and to draw in the 
menacing horns of the railroad on the other. 
This, of course, was the right policy, and after 
a term of years it has succeeded. The railroad is 
to-day on much better terms -with the people than 
it was, and the Constitutional Convention, which 
has just adjourned at Olympia, managed to com- 
plete its work without engaging in open conflict 
with the corporations 

The great railroad problem along all the sub- 
sidized routes concerns taxation. Under their 
charters lands granted to railroad corporations 
are exempted from territorial taxation. Many 
people say this is unjust; so soon as we buy the 
lands of the railroad we are taxed for them ; why 
should this corporation be spared burdens which 
we must bear ? I shall undertake to furnish no 
other answer to this question than may be con- 
tained in the suggestion that tremendous com- 
mercial chances were taken by the people who 
furnished the capital wherewith to build these 
roads. They sunk hundreds of millions before 
they realized a penny, and they are realizing 
only pennies to-day. They have made the West 
pretty much all that it is, and they are entitled to 
make some money. 

Washington’s population to-day must be close 
rnion 400,000. Its interests are widely diversified. 
It is a producing State in every sense of the term. 
Its land yields minerals, grain, building stones, 
coal, and all the crude materials with which 
mechanical arts, so far as the needs of this coun- 
try are concerned, have occasion to deal. These 
crude materials are being worked up into form 
and fabric by these people themselves. They are, 
in the largest sense possible to their numbers, an 


WASHINGTON. 


75 


exporting people. TUeir situation on the coast 
gives them perhaps the best and surest business 
opportunity enjoyed by any of the four new 
States— a fact which no one realizes more than they 
themselves. 

L. E. Q. 


XXXV. 


FORTUNATE TACOMA. 


THE NORTHERN PACIFIC TERMINUS. 


NATURAL ADVANTAGES AND WONDERFUL 
GROWTH— LUMBER, COAL AND WHEAT 
—THE CHINOOK JARGON. 

Tacoma, W. T., September 1. 

Many stories are told of the dark ways and 
vain tricks to which resort was had by capitalists, 
speculators, town-site owners and other fore- 
runners of Western development to induce the 
Northern Pacific Railroad to run its line to this 
point, through that valley and over yonder bench 
land. Unless its projecting engineers were very, 
very good, they ought to be very, very rich, for 
there was nothing they could not have had if 
they would only bring the railroad to suitable 
places. It is quite astonishing how many towns 
and individuals fancy themselves possessed of a 
grievance against the railroad because it did not 
come their way. Tacoma is an interesting ex- 
ception to this almost general proposition. The 
railroad did come Tacoma's way. The elevated 
promontory upon which Tacoma is built, slowly 
but grandly falling away into the pearly waters 
of Puget Sound, contained, when the railroad de- 
cided to come Tacoma’s way, a vast and mighty 
forest of pine trees, a sawmill and a few log 
shanties in which the employes of the mill lodged. 
That was Tacoma. Indians, hoarsely jabbering 
their strange Chinook, a medley of every known 
language spoken on two continents, hunted and 
fished through and about this wilderness Twenty- 
four hours after the Board of Directors of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad passed their resolution 
fixing Tacoma as the Western terminus of their 
road, a thousand trees were being felled, their 
stumps were being slashed and burned away, 
town-lots were being laid out five and ten miles 
distant from the proposed site of the railroad 
depot and money could not buy an acre of prop- 
erty at any point on the whole promontory. 

Events have fully justified the faith shown by 
the adventurers who thought tins a golden op- 
portunity, and the sagacity of the railroad com- 
pany in deciding upon this point as their terminus 
may not be questioned. This promontory lies 
between the main waters of the Sound and a 
beautiful bay. The eminent John Randolph, of 
Roanoke, who bore no love for the first of the 
Bayard family, used to speak of the honorable 
Senator “ who represented three counties at low 
tide and one at high.” The action of the waters 
of Pugel Sound with regard to Tacoma suggest 
the tidal conditions impuled by Mr. Randolph to 
Delaware. At’ high tide Commencement Bay is 
almost a sound of itself, but a few hours later 
whole acres of tide-land are laid bare, and the 
bay has almost disappeared beyond two jutting 
peaks in the distance. This and other physical 
arrangements have made Tacoma, for all practical 
purposes, the head of Puget Sound navigation. 
Vessels cannot wisely go further up the Sound 


lest they come to trouble among its strong currents 
and tortuous channels. This fact alone gives an 
assurance of future greatness to Tacoma. The 
other fact, that it is the terminus of a railroad 
system that begins at Cnicago, and may soon be- 
gin at New-Yom and stretch from ocean to ocean, 
as even now it stretches from the JLakes to the 
Pacific, completes the pledge that within another 
generation Tacoma must become one of the gieatest 
of American cities. Already 2o,0uu people are 
making of it a wonderfully busy mart. Already 
forty miles of graded saeeis and avenues are 
woven up and down and across its rugged, hand- 
some site. Already magnificent blocas of iron 
and granite and brick have been reared, not here 
and there, but in unbroken continuity along entire 
avenues. Street-cars bowl along in every direc- 
tion. Electric lights glare and flare from every 
corner at night and almost from every window. 
Already large manufactories have been estab- 
lished, and wholesale business houses, supplying 
a large area of growing country, have gi\en an 
important and permanent character to its trade. 
Already it has become a great shipbuilding' centre. 
Its people, indeed, own more shipping than the 
people of any other city of the Western coast, ex- 
cepting San Francisco. Its vessels carry lumber 
and the preserved fruits of Olympia and the 
Columbian plateau, wheat and other grains, to the 
ports of Asia and the fciouth Sea. This great ex- 
port trade, immense of volume, but still in its 
very infancy, grows with every hour. 

One of the most interesting facts in connection 
with this country is the retention of the early 
Indian names that were originally applied to its 
rivers and valleys. The Indians of Washington 
are related by many ties ol blood and association 
to all the tribes of the Canadian Northwest. Each 
tribe has its own peculiar language and customs, 
but they all speak Chinook. Tradition says that 
Chinook was invented a century ago by a 
Canadian-Scotch half-breed, in whose veins ran so 
many different strains of Indian blood, affording 
him such a variety of red relations, that he 
was, forsooth, compelled to get up a language of 
his own that they ail might be able to understand. 
So he took a little Blackfoot, mixed it with a 
trifle of Crow, seasoned it with bad French, worked 
in a Dundee accent, and called it " Chinook.” 
He provided that the male Indian should be 
known as a Siwash and the female Indian as a 
Klootchman. and as the Siwashes and Klootch- 
men worked themselves westward and over the 
country they carried this invented language with 
them and established it throughout the Northwest. 
There are hunters and trappers and lumbermen 
who can make themselves well understood through 
Chinook everywhere they . go. In the distant 
baokwoods there are squaw-men— that is, white 
men who have taken Indian wives— who have 
really forgotten their mother-tongue, and can now 
speak nothing but Chinook. The Indian proper 
names scattered so plentifully over Washington 
Territory are all Chinook names, and originally 
possessed some peculiar significance. Snowqunlmie, 
for instance, meant “ crowned with snow.” Skagit 
was the name of the wildcat. Stillaquamish sig- 
nified “ quiet water.” Nooksaclc meant “ north 
of the mountain.” Nesqually meant “ south of 
the mountain.” These and many other names, 
some of them picturesque in their significance 
and beautiful in their sound, are now preserved 
as the names of particular geographical features. 
Okinagane, “ soft and deep,” is the name of a 
lake. Yakima, “ white pebbles” : Wenatchie, 
swiftly running,” are names of mountain 
streams. 

Almost all the counties of the State are called 
by names derived from Indian stories. Tacoma 
was the name of a tribe, Seattle that of a great 
chief and when the white people determined to 
call their town after him his tribe came in a body 
to the Common Council and begged them to re- 
frain. Their request involved a long explanation 
of their religious beliefs, from which it appeared 
that they were worshippers of their ancestors and 


76 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


that the dead. Seattle was to them a great god. 
They believed that every time his name was men- 
tioned he turned in his grave, i can but leei as ii, 
under these circumstances, their request should 
have been granted, lor if they really believe that 
the old man is revolving every time the word Seat- 
tle is said, redeetions quite too horrible lor ex- 
pression must be continually arising in their minus. 
To think oi a majestic, haughty Tnoian chieitain 
whirling around in his " tom-tom” like a buzz-saw 
is certainly anything but agreeable to those whose 
religion consists in expressions ol reverence tor 
his memory. 

Among the most serious problems with which 
the new State of Washington will have to deai is 
one that relates to disposition of tide-lands. Puget 
Sound, with its long miles of water front, alfords 
about 200,00b acres of tide-land susceptible of cul- 
tivation. Some 30,000 acres have already been 
reclaimed, and are yielding in many instances 
enormous crops of grass and grain. An even 
hundred bushels of oats and three or four tons of 
hay are the average yield to the acre. The great 
value of these lands under the most ordinary cir- 
umstances is obvious. They are everywhere worth 
two or three times as much as the land around 
them, and when they lie in front of a great city, as 
they do at Olympia, Tacoma and Seattle, and may 
lie at a great variety of other places, soon to be 
made the water front of great export cities, their 
value is counted by thousands of dollars to the foot. 
A picturesque appearance is presented by the tide- 
lands around Tacoma and Seattle. You can see 
fences built out into the water, over which the 
Sound rises at high tide, but which are left deeply 
planted in the mud when the tide goes out, 
marking claims that have been entered in the 
United States Land Office by persons who have 
“ squatted” on these tide-lands. Several serio- 
comic incidents have already occurred indicating 
the determination of the “ squatters” to defend 
with their lives the property they have seized. 
The new Constitution of Washington affirms the 
title of the State to all these lands, and a scries of 
conflicts between the public and individuals is 
sure to result. A problem analogous to this is 
being confronted by the people of the arid States. 
It concerns public versus private rights to the 
great unnavigable waterways, which must in time, 
under the colossal schemes of irrigation soon to be 
undertaken, be depended upon to supply the nec- 
essary water. If every one can tap these streams 
at will, the land-owners nearest their elevated 
sources (for they are all mountain streams) will 
hold a great advantage over the property-owners 
lying lower along their courses. In many cases, 
indeed, these unfortunates will be crowded out 
entirely, as the flow during the irrigating season 
will not be sufficient to supply the ranches all 
along these narrow, shallow and very lone rivers. 

Tacoma’s trade, except in so far as it becomes 
in time a manufacturing city, will be composed 
of timber, minerals and agricultural products. 
The timber belt includes the whole division of 
land from the Cascade Mountains to the ocean 
and from the Columbia River to the British line. 
It is about as large as the State of Iowa, and is 
densely covered with trees that will cut from 
25,000 to 60,000 feet to the acre. Estimates have 
been made which show that the entire timbered 
district contains 1 75,000,000,000 feet. Their 
use is being confined as much as possible to ship 
spars and heavy building and bridge timber, 
though a tremendous amount of soft lumber is 
being sent every week into every continent. 
Something like 3,000,000 feet a day is the cut of 
the Washington mills, and while, of course, the 
time must come when this magnificent belt will 
be cleared and bare, that time will not arrive 
during the next century. 

I have already spoken at some length in this 
correspondence of the remarkable coal and mineral 
deposits to be found all along th» line of the 
Cascades. They are rapidly being developed and 
the coal taken from this district is already super- 


seding the Pennsylvania coals that have been for 
60 long and at such a fearful expense depended 
upon for the supply of this Northwestern country. 
The soil and climate of Washington are for many 
particular reasons adapted excellently well to the 
raising of hops, grain, grass and vegetables. And 
even the recital of every shipment that is made 
from Puget Sound of agricultural products would 
but tamely express the possibilities of the country. 
Tacoma is making every possible use of these great 
resources. The business interests of her popula- 
tion are as varied as the resources they can com- 
mand, and the growth of the city from 9,000 in 
1887 to at least 25, 000. to-day is the result of the 
opportunities derived from purely natural condi- 
tions. The exports of the Sound for 1889 will 
amount to twenty millions and will consist almost 
entirely of the products of Washington Territory. 
They will include 500,000,000 feet of lumber, 
30,000 centals of wheat, 300,000 tons of coal, 
1,500 tons of Sour and 20,000 tons of manu- 
factured goods, and in this startling aggregate of 
trade Tacoma’s individual share will not be less 
than one-third. L. E. Q. 


XXXYI. 


THE FAR NORTHWEST. 


DEMOCRACY DOOMED IN WASHINGTON. 


A DISCREDITABLE PAST AND A HOPELESS 

FUTURE— STRANGLED BY ITS OWN ERRORS. 

Olympia, W. T., September 9. 

As in the Dakotas, as in Montana, so in the new 
State of Washington, the Democracy enters into 
the contest for State supremacy with a discredit- 
able past and a hopeless future. Eastern people 
are often heard to wonder why it is so nearly 
impossible for the Democracy to obtain a foot- 
hold in the Western States. The reason lies in 
the mherent character of the party not less than 
in the specific acts of a kind offensive to the West 
of which it has been guilty. Its general tone and 
character have rendered it objectionable to a peo- 
ple upon whom the burden has fallen of creating 
great things out of little or nothing. If there is 
any one policy more thoroughly Democratic than 
another, it is the policy of demanding that every 
one shall take care of himself. This policy lay, 
I take it, at the bottom of the party’s early State’s 
rights theories. It certainly lies at the bottom of 
those Congressional policies by which it always 
seeks to prevent Federal legislation intended to 
build up and assist new and struggling sections 
of the country. The Dakotas, Montana and 
Washington are all of them going to come into 
the Union as Republican States. They will elect 
Republican Congressmen and Republican Legis- 
latures, which will in turn elect Republican 
United States Senators. The only one of these 
States in which the Democracy hopes to make any- 
thing like a substantial fight is Montana, and 
their strength there is simply the tail-end of an 
old-time Democratic party built up in the early 
days of the Territory when it was settled by Mis- 
sourians. As I explained some time ago, its 
strength in Montana has diminished in a regularly 
increasing ratio every year since the Northern 
Pacific Railroad came into Montana, until to-day it 
is the party of the minority, though the margin 
between the parties is concededly small. 

The people of the country ought to understand 
the philosophy of the Democracy’s failure in the 
West. Its position here is the logical result of 
substantial and easily recognized causes. Let me 


WASHINGTON. 


77 


illustrate. A lew weeks ago a committee of the 
United Srates Senate, composed of Senator Stewart, 
of Nevada; Senator Piumo, of Kansas; and Sena- 
tor .Reagan, of Texas, came all through the arid 
West and over the Northern Pacific into this 
State, clear through to the coast. They were in- 
vestigating a subject concerning which i have 
written you freely— that of National irrigation, the 
construction through this entire arid belt of great 
canals and reservoirs intended to supply the farmer 
hereafter to settle upon the millions of acres of 
public land now lying idle and tenantless, from 
which the Government now derives no revenue, 
but which are claimed by the Western people and 
by Major Powell, of the Geological Survey, to bo 
capable of magnificent production, with the water 
necessary to make the crops grow. The Senate 
instructed its committee to inquire into this mat- 
ter and to see for itself what the possibilities 
were, whether or not the claims of the people 
were true, what the cost of such great waterworks 
would probably be, and whether it would be the 
part of wisdom for the Federal Government to in- 
terest itself in the matter. At various points 
along the course taken by the committee the 
Senators made addresses to the people, and in every 
one of these addresses Mr. Reagan took occasion 
to say that he did not believe it was right or 
proper for the general Government to go into ad- 
ventures of this kind : that they were in their na- 
ture affairs of the State, and that each State 
ought to provide for its own interests. If ihere 
ever was a typical Democrat he is Senator Reagan, 
and his words upon the subject of National irriga- 
tion furnish a clear explanation of the reasons 
why the West distrusts the Democratic party. 
The people here do not insist that the Government 
shall undertake to irrigate the arid belt. They 
only a.sk that the subject shall be fairly and fully 
considered. But they know that the Democracy 
enters upon the consideration of it and of all 
other helpful policies with a strong and inherent 
prejudice against them. In a word, it is not a 
helpful party, and they, being a poor people en- 
gaged in a mighty struggle with a new country, 
which, however full of magnificent opportunities, 
however rich in raw materials, nevertheless re- 
quires of them the most herculean labors for its 
development, want to he helped. They need 
help. They know that the future will justify all 
their applications for help. They know they can 
pay 100, yes 500, per cent interest on all the help 
they get, but the time when they must be helped, 
if at all. is to-day, and they know that the 
Democratic party stands between them and all 
helpful enterprises on the part of the Government. 
That is the reason why they have no use for the 


Democracy. 

You have heard time and again that the people 
of the West were opposed to a protective tariff. 
Every election upon that issue has, of course, 
afforded a clear demonstration to the contrary, 
but nevertheless the Free-traders keep up the 
cry that the West is a farming country, that it 
wants cheap goods, that it feels the protective 
tariff to be merely an Eastern conspiracy by which 
the manufacturers of New-England and the Mid- 
dle States are enriched at the expense of the con- 
suming Western country. This story you will 
find in almost every issue of almost every free- 
trade journal in America. There never was a 
falser 'claim. Tf the Mills bill and the Senate 
substitute hill that were before the last Congress, 
if they and they only were before the people of 
the West as alternatives, an election upon them 
would be carried by the Senate substitute bill 
fifty to one. No intelligent man can come out 
here and study this question and arrive at any 
other conclusion. A Democratic delegate 
has represented this Territory m the 
Congress at Washington for two full terms 
and until the election of 1888, lie was elected 
in each instance upon a proposition dealing with 
the Northern Pacific Railroad. The people of 
Washington felt, that they had numerous griev- 
ances against this corporation. I dare say they 


had. It is a magnificent corporation. It runs 
wonderful railroad trains over a wonderful line. 
It attorns the Northwest a railroad service that 
fully justifies the use of the word excellent, liut 
it is a cold-blooded corporation, and it aims to 
extract ail the money it can from the people, ft 
intends to realize from its land grant every penny 
of the incalculable fortune there is in it. For 
several years the railroad has been in politics 
here. Certain people undertook to drag it m, and 
in fighting them it drew itself in. A widespread 
sentiment was aroused in favor of de during its 
grant forfeit. Now, the company had earned a 
iarge part of the grant. As to another large 
pare, its title, while clouded, was by no means 
easy of denial. The Republicans deprecated a 
campaign directed against the railroad. They 
were conscious of the State’s dependency upon it. 
They knew how intimately interwoven was the 
people’s prosperity with the good fortune of the 
railroad, and they thought that good policy made 
it advisable for the Territory to get along har- 
moniously with the company. ’They advocated a 
compromise. They wanted justice for the State, 
but were disposed to give justice to the railroad. 

This situation afforded, as you can easily see, a 
splendid chance for demagogy. Senator Voorhees, 
of Indiana, that interesting Anarchist who re- 
cently proposed to hang Mr. Carnegie, had a son 
out here, somewhat past Ids majority, loung 
Voorhees was in many respects a second edition of 
old Voorhees. He, too, had the hanging pro- 
pensity. He wanted to be an Anarchist like his 
papa. He wanted to hang Mr. Villard and Mr. 
Oakes and all the other hard-hearted oppressors 
of the people. So he got himself nominated by 
the Democratic party and went before the people 
upon the practical issue that dreadful things ought 
to be done to the Northern Pacific Railroad. He 
and his supporters made a vast number of wild 
and silly speeches, intended to inflame people 
against the Northern Pacific. As is usual in such 
cases, there was just enough of a tangible griev- 
ance to give opportunity for this kind of a cam- 
paign, and it succeeded. Voorhees was elected. 
He went to Washington and put in his anti-cor- 
poration bills. The last campaign was attempted 
to be fought upon this same issue, but in the 
meantime Cleveland had written Ins tariff mes- 
sage. Mills had introduced and passed his Free- 
Trade bill, and the Republicans of Washington 
talked tariff. Their candidate was a popular 
young man from Walla-Walla, who explained ta 
the people that the Democratic party had wiped 
out the tariff on wool, and by that action, though 
it had not yet gone into effect, had reduced the 
price of their clip from 25 cents a pound to 12 
cents, ire explained that sheep could be grown 
in South America and Australia by labor that, 
felt itself richly paid at 20 cents a day, while 
Washington herders were receiving $1 a day and 
their keep. He explained that the Mills bill had re- 
duced the tariff on lead 50 per cent, and that 
under the construction of the present tariff law 
by the Democratic Secretary of the Treasury Mex- 
ican lead ores had been admitted into the United 
States absolutely free of duty, to the vast injury 
of the lead mines at the Coeur d’Alenes. owned 
and operated by Washington people and Washing- 
ton capital. Tie explained that the Mills bill had 
put lumber on the free list, seeking to bring into 
the United States the large outpourings 
of Canadian forests in competition with 
i he one great staple of Washington. 
These facts were clearly got before 
the people and Mr. Voorhees found hiimself de- 
feated bv a majority of 7,371. This faot. shows 
where Washington stands on the subiect. of the 
tariff, just, as the election of Mr. Carter in Montana 
by more than 5.000 major fly, upon the same issue,’ 
shows where Montana stands. 

Both parties are now in the field in Washington,' 
and the lines of battle are already drawn. Re- 
publican success is as inevitable as the dawn of 
elee + i n n day. The action of the Land Department 
at Washington in hastening the issues of land 1 
patents and mining titles which had be"n with- 


78 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


held by the much-hated Sparks upon the trivial 
and generally fraudulent pretences that they had 
not been fully or fairly earned, has been an im- 
portant factor in satisfying the people that the 
Republican Administration has their substantial 
interests at heart. They are not deceived, either, | 
by the allegation, which has been assiduously- 
made, that President Harrison does not intend 
to enforce the Anti-Chinese act. The people of 
Washington have suffered much from inflowing 
hordes of Mongolians, and you touch them in a 
tender place when you represent that the Govern- 
ment intends to permit this evil longer to be 
felt. But they have seen no indications of weak- 
ness on the part of the Administration, and 
Democratic misrepresentations have entirely failed 
of their designed effect. The people of this 
coast are a ship-building people. They are con- 
structing about fifty vessels a year, with a gross 
tonnage of about 10,000, and they understand 
how vastly to their injury would be the success 
of the Democratic free-ship scheme. To sum up 
the situation, the Democracy is hopelessly, irre- 
trievably wrong upon every Western question, and 
it has nothing in its policy, in its traditions, in 
its past acts, its present position or its future 
intentions upon which it can possibly attract 
votes. The only reason why people here vote 
for it to-day is because they have been in the 
habit of voting for it before they came here, and 
the number of those who are persisting in a mis- 
taken habit grows rapidly and constantly less. 

L. E. Q. 


XXXYH. 


AMONG THE BLACK HILLS. 


ROMANTIC SCENES AND PRACTICAL 
WEALTH SIDE BY SIDE. 


STRANGE GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS — INDIAN 
SUPERSTITIONS— MINERAL RESOUR- 
CES OF TIIE REGION. 

Deadwood, South Dakota, Sept. 14. 

It is when one visits such a country as the Black 
Hills that he feels most regretful concerning 
America’s lack of that sort of romantic history 
which afforded Scott, Goethe and Schiller such 
intensely interesting themes. If ever a region 
was made for the purpose of exciting strange and 
uncamny emotions, it is that so appropriately 
named the “ Black Hills.” In the first place, 
geologists discover no reason growing out of the 
character of the surrounding country why there 
should have been hills here at all. They came as 
the result of an upheaval which was purely local 
both in origin and effect. There seems to be a 
vast central mass of granite which serves as the 
core of the mountains, and around it in concen- 
tric ribbons, so to speak, are the upturned edges 
of an infinite variety of formations. The first 
upheaval was Archaean, and the traces of it are 
exceedingly distinct and frequent. The land 
originally thrown up must have been acted upon 
by erosion and carried away by the early waters. 
It must finally have become the bed of the sea, 
receiving sediments of its own, again and during 
the same period to be thrown higher in the air 
than ever. Again it must have sunk, and to a 
very considerable depth for fhe sediments and 
fossils of the Potsdam group are to be discovered 
at a depth of 250 feet. Again it rose above the 
Paleozoic ocean, and the limestone and sandstone 
began to accumulate. Upon these the Triasslc 


beds were deposited, and above them were laid the 
Jurassic ruen, ana nnaiiy, alter the cretaceous 
period, the mountains as tney appear to-uay were 
upiieaved. au tnese rormaiions are discernible 
in Circular bands surrounding tne granite nucleus, 
showing that the dual expulsion must have oc- 
curred with greatest iorce directly in the centre 
of the country. Centuries oi erosive action have 
served to lay bare the edges of these origmai 
Archaean rocits. 

It is this peculiar geological formation, unit ren- 
ders the lilack Hills so strange and weird in their 
scenic effects. They are called black because of 
the appearance presented at a distance by the pine 
trees which cover them. The pines of the Rock- 
ies, the Cascades and the Sierras are exceedingly 
green and bright, but the pines of the Black Hills 
! are dark, gloomy and produce rather a disagree- 
able Impression upon the mind. There is nothing 
in the nature of a range of mountains rolling along 
up and down or over and across the country, but 
each particular hill seems to have been formed of 
itself. It towers aloft in its own way. The 
mountains, indeed, do not even seem to have a 
neighborly relation to each other, and the further 
j you go among them the more strange and fearful 
become the sensations produced by their curious 
and ominous appearances. They only need the 
grim ruins of a few castles, of a few stone cathe- 
drals, together with a dozen darksome legends of 
wicked lords and unhappy ladies, a few murdered 
princes, a few imperious priests, a few slaughtered 
armies, a few Robin Hoods, a few Rob Roys and a 
few Roderick Dim,-, to render them quite as worth 
while as the Highlands or the Hartz. It is known 
that the Sioux Indians, who used to own the hills, 
entertained a great many strong objections to cer- 
tain especially dismal spots among them. They 
loved the beautiful valleys where the sun ever 
shines, where the silvery waters of half a dozen 
mountain streams glide and spring and dance 
along. They loved the mountain peaks from 
which they could look out upon a great continent 
and see the rolling prairie far away meeting the 
horizon at every point, but there were certain 
gulches, certain canons, certain dark ravines and 
certain tumbling torrents which only the bravest 
of them or those under the protection of the Man- 
! itou ever visited. Thes’ spots, however, exerted 
a great influence upon the Indian. One of ihem 
contains a stone whereon the feet of the Great 
Spirit are imprinted, leaving the eternal trace of 
his presence when he formed the great Dacotah 
Tribe. In another spot is the gushing spring out 
of which he took the water wherewith he modelled 
from the pipestone the mother of the whole red 
race. In certain places are great rocks jutting 
from the mountains in such positions as to inspire 
among the superstitious Indians strange and dread- 
ful ideas of the Deity, about which they used to 
gather before they went to war or before they 
negotiated peace. 

Naturally then, this country, sacred in their 
eyes, was most stubbornly protected when the 
white man demanded it. In the breast of the 
meanest and vilest Indian there is yet to be found 
a certain beautiful sentiment associated with the 
love of nature. In the Sioux tribe this feeling 
is particularly strong. The Sioux is in all ways 
the noblest, bravest and cleverest of the Indian 
family. His love for these hills had grown up 
through marv centuries, and when his claim to 
them was disputed he took the war path at 
once. Every mountain was fought over: in every 
valley he left his blood; every gay rivulet bore 
in it's crimson tint the record of his valor and 
devotion. 'When at last he was forced away, 
when the truth came clearly upon him that he 
must surrender this storehouse of his best and 
fines*- imagination, the spirit of the Sioux was 
nearly broken. Since the return of the Indians 
fT’om their Canadian exile they have been a 
different people, savage as ever, ugly as ever, 
malicious, hateful and sinister as ever, but the 
fire of deviltry burns far less brightly in their 
eyes, and, though the knife and the rifle are ever 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


70 


ready at their belt and shoulder, their nerveless 
fingers hang palsied at their sides. The loss of 
the Black Hills more than anything else con- 
vinced the Indian that his struggle against the 
white aggressor must he in vain. 

It would be hard to suggest what nature could 
give the Black Hills that she has not given theui. 
Hold and silver, iron and copper and lead, tin, 
zinc, mica, graphite, antimony, arsenic, saltpetre, 
cobalt, salt, are all to be found in quantities 
that are making, and will make, their develop- 
ment as resources profitable to the country. In 
their western extremity is to be found a rich an! 
widely distributed area ot coal. Inexhaustible 
stores of limestone, sandstohe, granite, gypsum 
and marble, clay for the potter, clay for the brick- 
maker, are among the treasures that have fallen 
to the fortunate lot of the Black Hills resident. 
Here is to be found the largest gold mine in the 
world, directly and indirectly supporting as many 
as 12,000 people. Here are the largest known 
deposits of tin ore, covering a country forty miles 
in length by eight or ten in width. It is by 
many believed that the recently discovered tin 
ores of the Black Hills are to furnish by far their 
most permanent source of wealth. As many as 
3,000 claims are recorded in the land district to 
tin mines in and surrounding Harney Peak. The 
discovery of tin dates back only six years, and 
as yet but little has been done to show the work- 
able quality of the ore. Scientific people, who 
admit that there is a vast amount of tin spread 
over a vast amount of country, still deny that 
any process is in existence by which it can be 
profitably got at. A company is now building a 
mill which is to have a capacity of 500 tons a 
day, and the problem will be promptly and de- 
cisively solved. 

Notwithstanding the fact that a gold mine has 
been found in Dakota and is to-day being operated 
upon the most extensive and magnificent scale, 
producing $1,500,000 annually from ores which 
do not average more than $3 50 to the ton, it is 
probably a fact that more money has been spent 
in the Black Hills than in any other mining region 
to absolutely no advantage. The hills contain 
everything of a mineral nature that cam possibly 
be packed into a region of its area, and yet there 
is very little concentration of the ores in certain 
and specific spots. You cannot dig up a cart- 
load of earth anywhere without finding color, but 
the problem is tc-day, as it has ever been since 
the discovery of gold here, how to secure a process 
cheap enough and thorough enough to save the 
minerals. Little by little the Ilomestake Com- 
pany is solving this question. Its losses in gold 
carried off in the tailings, although enormous, are 
less to-day than ever before, and little appliances 
are continually being added here and there in its 
vast machinery- by which the gold is being more 
thoroughly caught. But there are many mines 
containing ores that carry as much as $15 or $20 
to the ton which cannot be worked at all. The 
gold is found in such peculiar combinations that 
any effort to extract it upon a large scale is ut- 
terly futile. There is certainly no field in which 
the practical inventor of mining machinery can 
work to better advantage than in the Black Hills. 


Comparatively nothing has been dome toward tak- 
ing out the minerals of the region, An output of 
$3,ouu,0ou a year is ail that can be claimed; 
whereas il they only knew just how to do it, if 
they only had the chemiftal combinations or the 
mechanical appliances which would effectually 
take hold of the minerals and save them, the 
output might very easily reach $15,000,000, and 
might go on for scores of years at that vast aggre- 
gate. 

It cannot be said that the experiments which 
have been made bere with the peculiar materials 
furnished by this soil have been in the highest 
sense practical. A great many very wise scien- 
tific persons have done a great many wise and 
scientific things. Some of these have proved 
utter failures and none is a substantial success. 
Processes have been invented which do well 
enough when operated in a crucible, but which 
have proved utter failures when adapted to large 
machines. The practical mining men of the West 
have not yet invaded the Hills. They are still 
working in California, Nevada, Colorado and 
Montana. Mr. Hearst and Mr. Haggin are the 
only ones who have come into this country, and 
their mine is the only one that has proved to be 
an unqualified success. There is a vast difference 
between the way in which Eastern men and 
Western men go into mining adventures. The 
Western man undertakes it slowly. He studies his 
mine. He digs here and bores there. He makes 
entries running wherever he sees the vein, and 
when he finally undertakes the work of develop- 
ment he is so well satisfied of what his mine con- 
tains that he is prepared to put into it the neces- 
sary thousands or millions as the case may be, 
and as the case often is, to get its contents out. 
But the Eastern man always wants to take away 
ten dollars for every one he invests and to take 
it immediately. He does not come out and make 
a careful study of the country, going into its 
geological history, examining it everywhere, 
studying the geological structure of similar por- 
tions of the country, studying other mines with a 
view to the institution of proper geological com- 
parisons. He is unwilling to spend the time and 
the money necessary to accomplish this primary 
work. Instead, he sends out a mining engineer 
who knows but little except wbat the books have 
told him and upon the report of this usually in- 
competent person he makes his investment. He 
usually spends what money he does spend as fool- 
ishly as possible, and when he has sunk $10,000 
or $20,000 to no avail he becomes disgusted, curses 
wildcat mines, and wherever he goes he damns 
the country generally. There are thousands of 
cases in which mines thus abandoned by Eastern 
men and sold for a song after they have sunk in 
them a moderate fortune have been bought by 
Western men, men who understand the country 
and who have made mining a life-work, and 
profitably developed. So soon as the time comes, 
and it soon will come, when the practical Western 
miner takes hold of the Black Hills their immense 
mineral resources will respond quickly to his 
knotting touch and their output will be^ quad- 
rupled. L. E. Q. 


80 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


STATISTICS OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA. 

SHOWING THE TOTAL PRODUCT OF THE PRINCIPAL CROPS BY COUNTIES. 


COUNTIES. 


Aurora 

Beadle 

Bon Homme... 

Boreman 

Brookings .... 

Brown 

Brule 

Buffalo 

Burdick 

Butte 

Campbell ..E. 
Charles Mix... 

Choteau 

Clark 

Clay 

Codington .... 

Custer 

Davison 

Day 

Deiano 

Deuel 

Dewey 

Douglas 

Edmunds 

Ewing 

Fall River 

Faulk 

Grant 

Gregory 

Hamlin 

Hand 

Hanson 

Harding 

Hughes 

Hutchinson . 

Hyde 

Jackson 

Jerauld 

Kingsbury ... 

Lake 

Lawrence .... 

Lincoln 

Lugenbeel 

Lyman 

McCook 

McPherson .. 

Marshall 

Martin 

Meyer 

Miner 

Minnehaha 

Moody 

Nowlin 

Pennington 

Potter 

Pratt 

Presho 

Pyatt 

Rinehart .... 

Roberts 

■Sanborn .... 

Scobey 

Sohnasse .... 
Shannon .... 
Spink 

Stanley .... 
Sterling 


Com. 

Wheat. 

Oats. 

Flax. 

Potatoes. 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

602,175 

319,814 

225,100 

73,003 

43,637 

1,240,800 

1,253,200 

930,000 

137,600 

93,799 

1,076,660 

100,000 

412,500 

56,560 

23,529 

(Within the 

Great Sioux 

Reservation.) 

« 

144,000 

810,000 

742,000 

150,000 

51,646 

585,900 

4,009,887 

2,773,164 

107,004 

146,701 

905,976 

385,000 

381,316 

51,660 

30,710 

67,149 

45,900 

58,680 

20.420 

3,217 

Unorganized. 

No Government surveys made. 

38,000 

45,000 

112,500 

— . 

18,136 

126,500 

47,690 

110,000 

67,000 

4,071 

1,214,400 
(Within the 

206,250 
Great Sioux 

196,866 

Reservation.) 

30,709 

36,542 

114,608 

840,945 

667,920 

66,000 

56,801 

1,705,275 

132,468 

680,432 

56,331 

4 6,335 

19,188 

911,988 

544,654 

45,851 

59,207 

65,000 

24,000 

64,000 

750 

7,245 

728,271 

331,440 

401,200 

63,330 

33,158 

104,500 
(Within the 

875,000 
Great Sioux 

637,000 

Reservation.) 

48,620 

40,904 

32,200 
(Within the 

736,661 
Great Sioux 

297,000 

Reservation.) 

4,800 

37,606 

671,375 

147,375 

249,900 

85,500 

27,847 

104,181 

Unorganized. 

683,995 

653,720 

156,010 

13,026 

41,400 

20,000 

30,000 

900 

2,995 

160,350 

534,525 

223,125 

37,485 

25,031 

220.000 
(Within the. 

672,000 
Great Sioux 

480,000 

Reservation.) 

6,800 

41,124 

49,500 

700,000 

450,000 

20,000 

43,099 

524,556 

640,718 

331,412 

22,014 


560,000 

Unsurveyed. 

360,000 350,000 

Only used as stock ranges. 

70,000 

27,861 

437,500 

300,000 

231,250 

12,288 

29,704 

885,144 

480,555 

690,174 

202,800 

42,214 

171,000 
(Within the 

194,250 
Great Sioux 

259,000 

Reservation.) 

55,000 

7,653 

640,000 

348,000 

358,750 

75,000 

23,81 1 

293,250 

1,678,720 

1,054,375 

107,750 

90,042 

317,808 

549,848 

758,406 

179,399 

26,734 

237.500 

216.000 

922,500 

375 

85,640 

996,629 259,875 

(Within the Great Sioux 

698,250 

Reservation.) 

166,188 

85,640 

(Within the Great Sioux 

Reservation.) 

141,246 

57,156 

4,329 

987,500 

600,000 

406,250 

40,000 

175,500 

194,000 

144,000 

86,321 

(Within the 
(Within the 

546,000 
Great Sioux 
Great Sioux 

390,875 

Reservation.) 

Reservation.) 

65,000 

17,896 

313,500 

682,500 

363.000 

135,000 

40,553 

1,038.654 

789,328 

840,000 

300,000 

67.911 

158,270 

(Within th- 
30,400 

441,728 
Great Sioux 
144,000 

502,464 

Reservation.) 

360,000 

197,230 

29,215 

24,02* 

200,000 
(Within the 
(Within the 

220,000 64,000 

Great Sioux Reservation.) 

’ eat Sioux Reservation.) 

24,399 

10,342 


(Within the 
(Within the 
34,450 
649.600 
(Within the 
(Within the 
(Within the 
510 000 
(Within the 
(Within the 


Great Sioux Reservation.) 
Great Sioux Reservation.) 
no. 250 74,750 

372,720 357,840 

Great Sioux Reservation.) 
' heat Sioux Reservation.) 
Great Sioux Reservation.) 
2,550,000 1,200.000 

Great Sioux Reservation.) 
Great Sioux Reservation.) 


3,000 

85,260 


164,097 


18,367 

34,784 


1 07.638 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


81 


% 


STATISTICS OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA. 

SHOWING THE TOTAL PRODUCT OF THE PRINCIPAL CROPS BY COUNTIES-Continued. 


COUNTIES. 


Sullv 

Todd 

Tripp 

Turner 

Union 

Wagner 

Walworth ... 
Washabaugh 
Washington . 

Yankton 

Ziebach 


Corn. 

Wheat. 

Oats. 

Flax. 

Potatoet 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

462,521 

190,130 

133,400 

26,940 

15,565 

(Within the 

Great Sioux Reservation.) 


(Within the 

Great Sioux Reservation.) 



731,305 

172,635 

675,710 

141,291 

47,016 

2,256,000 

294,000 

855,000 

34,496 

.7,3/9 

(Within the 

Great Sioux Reservation.) 

153,000 

165,750 

153,750 

27,000 

7,253 

•Within the 

Great Sioux Reservation.) 


(Within the 

Great, Sioux Reservation.) 



866,838 

217,456 

484,128 

72,513 

40,5)4 

(Within the 

Great Sioux Reservation.) 


The above figures are taken from the report of the Commissioner of Emigration for the Terri- 
tory of Dakota for the year 188 7. 

There are no accurate statistics of the population of South Dakota later than the census of 1885, 
as given in the table following, but reliable estimates give its population to-dav at least 300.000. 

South Dakota is eminently cat able of sustaining as dense a population as any of the States 
below named, or as any agricultural region ; 
and with a population of the same density as Illinois, South Dal 
“ “ “ “ “ “ Michigan, 


ota would have 


“ “ “ “ “ “ Iowa. 

“ “ “ “ •“ “ Minnesota, 

“ “ “ “ “ “ Pennsylvania, 

“ “ “ “ “ “ Massachusetts, 

Of the Government land still unoccupied and subject to entry on Government terms, there re- 
main 6,263,018 acres in South Dakota (see following table), or enough to give 160 acres of 
land to each of 39,144 heads of families, or to support a population of 195,720 through agri- 


2,737,570 

1,561,326 

1,674,251 

651,802 

4,606.071 

1 1,21 1 ,uOS 


culture alone. 

The United States Land Offices for the largest portions of the Government lands are located 
at Watertown, Huron and Aberdeen, the latter district containing the larger portion of the 
vacant lands. 


STATISTICS OF THE STALE OF SOUTH DAKOTA. 

SHOWING THE POPULATION, AREA. IMPROVED LANDS AND GOVERNMENT LANDS BY COUNTIES. 



Population. 

Area 

Improved Lands. 

COUNTIES. 

1880. 

1 1885. 

in 

Acres. 

1880. 

1 1885. 

Aurora 

69 

5,950 

460,800 

3,840 

89,323 

Beadle 

1,290 

10,318 

806,400 

37 

135,834 

Bon Homme 

5,468 

7,449 

391,680 

844,800 

48,914 

76,811 

Brookings 

4,965 

8,288 

518^400 

31,254 

155,556 

Brown 

353 

12,241 

1,105,920 

468 

24 8.34 6 

Brule 

238 

7,524 

537,600 

238 

7,524 

Buffalo 

63 

864 

299,520 

122 

8,305 

Burdick 

— 

75 

783,360 

— 

— 

Butte 



1,081 

832,000 

— 

24,743 

Campbell 

50 

1,1 99 

568,320 

60 

9,1 12 
74,279 

Charles Mix 

407 

4,022 

720,000 

1,560 

*Choteau 





560,000 

— 

— 

Clark 

114 

4,892 

760,320 

225 

92,005 

Clay 

Codington 



6,201 

261,760 

— 

114,466 

2,156 

5,648 

460,800 

13,667 

78,307 

Custer 

995 

1,292 

2,240,000 

376,480 

— 

4,689 


1,256 

5,940 

5,170 

58, 636 

Day 

•Delano 

Deuel 

97 

5,601 

691,200 

645,120 

422.400 

238 

74,717 

2,302 

4,403 

8,501 

5 9,663 


Vacant 

Government 

Lands. 


9,600 

630,000 

621,076 

146,880 

5,000 

21,480 


6,260 

911,920 

34,160 

4,440 


Counties Included within the Great Sioux Reservation. 


82 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST, 


STATISTICS OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA. 
SHOWING POPULATION. AREA, IMPROVED LANDS, ETC.— CONTINUED. 


COUNTIES. 

• Dewey 

Douglas 

Edmunds 

Ewing 

Fall River 

Faulk 

Grant 

"Gregory 

Hamlin 

Hand 

Hanson 

Harding 

Hughes 

Hutchinson 

Hyde 

•Jackson 

Jerauld 

Kingsbury 

Lake 

Eawrence 

Etacoln 

•Eugeabeel 

“Lyman 

McCook 

McPherson 

Marshall 

•Martin 

•Meyer 

Miner 

Minnehaha 

Moody ..T 

•Nowlin 

Pennington 

Potter 

•Pratt 

•Presho 

•Pyatt 

•Rinehart 

Roberts 

Sanborn 

•Scobey 

•Sehnasse 

•Shannon 

Spink 

•Stanley 

•Sterling 

•Sully 

•Todd 

•Tripp 

Turner 

Union 

•Wagner 

Walworth ..y 

•Washabaugh 

•Washington 

Yankton ......7 

•Ziebach 


Population. 
1880. 1885. 

6 3,801 

2,422 

50 

472 

4 3,120 

3,010 6,793 


693 3,757 

153 7,057 

1,301 3,933 


268 5,268 

5,573 9,006 

2,157 


3,458 

1,102 7, '345 

2,657 5,432 

13,248 10,326 

5,896 7,598 


1,283 5,641 

1,422 

2,187 


363 4,928 

8,251 13,857 

3,915 5,189 

2,244 3,244 

2,336 


2,154 
4,1 06 


477 10,446 


296 3,233 


5,320 8,282 

6,813 8,017 

46 1,412 


8,390 9,404 


Area 

in 

Acres. 

1,462,080 

299,520 

437.280 
587,620 

1,036,800 

670,720 

426.240 
619,760 
345,600 
983,040 
230,400 

782.360 

495.360 
552,960 
552,960 

736.000 

345.600 
552,960 
368,640 

1,280,000 

350.000 

673.280 
360,320 
368, 640 
737,286 
552,960 

480.000 
983,328 
368,640 

522.240 

337.920 

768.000 

1.024.000 

564.480 

783.360 

784.880 

1.080.000 

560.000 

800.000 
368,646 

704.000 
996.440 
673,280 
967,680 

698.880 

768.000 
668,160 

20,480 

1,293,440 

399.360 

276.480 

480.000 
460.800 

800.000 

985.600 

337.920 
531.200 


Improved. Lands. 


1880. 

1885. 

— 

71,654 

26,101 

3,601 

15,182 

54,036 

88,474 

6,275 

64,110 

12,877 

57,399 

146 

56,587 

119,850 

32,541 


41,699 

197 130,068 

17,500 79,520 

20,549 94,850 

76,146 93,536 


7,746 

88,177 

— 

9,800 

— 

28,265 

8,242 

69,497 

104,618 

220,429 

31.440 

87,338 

1,359 

28,386 

40 

25,540 


Vacant 

Government 

Lands. 


104,94 0 

920,000 

20.480 
9,900 

2,840 

16.480 

782,366 

4,800 

22,320 


1,550 

765,471 


285,299 

16,680 


721,982 

79,680 


29,430 2,230 

45,300 


4.335 

219,471 

960 


— 

36,147 

12,320 


41.212 

89,846 

101,243 

160,281 

INI 
1 1 1 
I 1 1 
( i ; 

85 

20,299 

111,210 

1 

1 

1 1 
1 1 

1 

1 

1 1 

1 

47,017 

144,590 

— 


* Comities Included within the Great Sioux Reservation. 


Total area of South Dakota •„ 50,586,148 acres 

Area of Sioux Indian Reservation 19,092,228 “ 


Area, less Indian Reservation 31,493,920 “ 

Improved land y 3,600,122 “ 

Government land » 6,263,018 “ 

Ponulation of South Dakota in 1885 260,721 

The above table discloses the following most interesting facts to home-seekers : 

Exclusive of the Sioux Indian Reservation, there are 603 1-2 acres of land for every head of family 
in South Dakota. This compares with the States below named as follows : 

Illinois 5 7 acres 

Michigan ....; 103 “ 

Iowa 102 “ 

Minnesota .. 235 “ 

Pennsylvania 34 “ 

Massachusetts 14 * 


SOUTH DAKOTA. 


83 


CHOP STATISTICS OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA FOR THE YEAR 1888. 
SHOWING THE AVERAGE YIELD PER ACRE OP THE PRINCIPAL CROPS BY COUNTIES BASED 


ON ESTIMATES. 



. 

U) 

. • 00 

X 

r 





COUNTIES. 

H o 

Pi H 
£ o 

OATS. 

5. Bushel 

BARLEY 
No. Bushel 

<1 

CORN. 

>. Bushel 


COUNTIES. 

VHEAT. 
i. Bushel 

a 

<n 

o. 


£ 

15 

5 

Z 



^Z 

z 

Aurora 

17 

45 

39 

13 

47 


Hanson 

1,7 

46 

36 

Beadle 

16 

31 

28 

9 

32 


Hughes 

. 13 

Bon Homme 

16 

50 

41 

15 

58 


Hutchinson . 

. 16 

46 

Brookings 

14 

38 

35 

14 

40 


Hyde 

13 

35 

Brown 

18 

47 

42 

14 

40 


Jerauld 

17 

42 

45 

Brule 

17 

44 

37 

14 

48 


Bake 

1 6 

Buffalo 

16 

41 

36 

13 

45 


Lincoln 

. 16 

42 

Campbell 

19 

50 

40 

15 

38 


Marshall .... 

. 16 

45 

Charles Mix . 

17 

46 

34 

13 

50 


McCook 

17 

45 

Clark 

15 

30 

27 

11 

34 


McPherson 

. 18 

50 

Clay 

16 

48 

37 

14 

60 


Miner 

. 16 

43 

Codington 

14 

35 

32 

10 

40 


Minnehaha 

16 

40 

Division 

17 

45 

38 

15 

48 


Moody 

. 16 

41 

Day 

15 

40 

30 

12 

37 


Potter 

. 12 

35 

Deuel 

13 

38 

33 

13 

38 


Sanborn 

17 

44 

Douglas 

16 

45 

38 

15 

54 


Spink 

. 15 

38 

Edmunds 

18 

46 

41 

14 

40 


Turner 

16 

43 

Faulk .......j.... 

1 6 

37 

>29 

11 

33: 


Union 

16 


Grant 

16 

39 

30 

11 

32 


Walworth 

. 18 

46 

Hamlin 

16 

38 

29 

11 

35 


Yankton 

. 1 7 

47 

Hand 

15 

33 

29 

10 

35 





Total average .. 







. 16 

43 


fc'l 


oi 

. 3 

. n x 

Xy 

Zf 

H 3 
«« 

< 3 

oi 

< 

fe . 

'j . 

q o 

c 

e 

Z 

.. z 

Z 

39 

14 

50 

35 

11 

40 

38 

16 

56 

34 

11 

41 

35 

13 

47 

34 

13 

4 3 

38 

13 

53 

40 

12 

37 

34 

14 

4 9 

36 

15 

35 

36 

13 

44 

33 

12 

47 

32 

12 

46 

36 

11 

32 

37 

13 

45 

30 

10 

30 

39 

15 

51 

35 

15 

60 

36 

16 

37 

35 

16 

60 

36 

13 

43 


FREE LANDS. 


GOVERNMENT LANDS— HOW TO GET THEM-HOME- 
STE ADS— PRE-EMPTIONS— TREE CLAIMS. 


HOMESTEADS. 

Under these laws every citizen, or person who 
lias declared his intention of becoming a citizen, 
over the age of twenty-one, whether single or 

head of family, can eater 160 acres of Burveyed 
lanu. 

After having selected a tract and ascertained 
its description, the settler should go to the local 
land office and sign an application and subscribe 
to the required affidavit. The application de- 
scribes the land, and the affidavit sets forth facts 
respecting his age, citizenship, etc. He will then 
be required to pay to the register and receiver 
of the land office the Government fee and that 
part of the commission which is payable when 
the entrv is made according to the amount of 
land entered, as follows: 160 acres— fee $10, 
commission $4, total $14; eighty acres— fee $5, 
commission $2, total $7. 

When the applicant is settled on the land he 
ddsites to enter, but is prevented by bodily infirm- 
ity, distance, or other good cause from visiting 
the land office in parson. the affidavit may be 
made before the clerk of the court for the county 
within which the land is situated; and the 
affidavit, together with the application and money, 
can be forwarded to the register and receiver. 

Having selected and entered the land he will be 
required to establish an actual residence thereon 
within six months from the date of the entry, 
and that residence must be continued, without 
abatement for more than six months at any one 
time, for five years. If he has a family, his 
family must also reside on the land. While the 
law allows a temporary absence (of not more than 
six months at any one time) it requires that the 
residence and improvement of the land shall be 
actual. The settler cannot sleep on the land on* 
■night every six months and call it a residence, 


neither can he pile a few logs or poles together 
and call it a cabin. At the end of five years from 
date of entry, or within two years thereafter, he 
can submit to the land officers proof of his residence, 
cultivation, etc. This proof can either be made 
before those officers or before the judge of a 
court of record of the county in which the land is 
situated. He will then be required to pay the 
balance of the commission (being same amount as 
the commission paid when entry was made), when 
the patent certificate will be issued on which the 
Government patent or deed is executed. He 
need not necessarily make his proof (or as it is 
commonly termed *• prove up”) at the end of five 
years, though he must do so within seven years 
from date of entry. 

If the settler does not wish to remain upon the 
land the full period required, he can, after six 
months’ residence, prove up. but he will then be 
required to pay for the land at the Government 
price. This is called commuting an entry. This 
price is uniformly $1 25 per acre. Every soldier 
or sailor who served in the Army or Navy of the 
United States for ninety dnvs during the late 
Rebellion, and was honorably discharged, is en- 
titled to receive, on the period of residence re- 
quired on his homestead, the time of his service 
in the Army or Navy, providing such service 
did not exceed four years. One year’s residence 
on the land is invariably required. Single women 
over the age of twenty-one. and married women 
whose husbands have deserted them, come within 
the provisions of the law, and can take home- 
steads; and the wiaow (if unmarried, or, in case 
of her marriage, the orphan children) of a soldier 
can have the ..ame privileges and benefits that the 
soldier would Lave were he alive. 

PRE-EMPTIONS. 

The pre-emption law requires, in addition to 
residence and cultivation, that payment for th° 
land at the Government price ($i 25 per acre) 
shall be made. The pre-emption privilege is re- 
stricted to heads of families, widows, or single 
persons over the age of twenty-one years, who are 
citizens, or who have declared their intention to 


84 


NEW EMPIRES IN THE NORTHWEST. 


become citizens. It also excludes persons who 
own 3 20 acres of land in any State or Territory, 
and those who leave their own land in the same 
State or Territory lor Government lands. The 
right of a settler attaches from the time settle- 
ment is made, and when he files his declaratory 
statement the date of such settlement must be 
given. The declaratory statement is a preliminary 
caper that must be filed with the land officers, 
and the fee required to be paid is $2; it is re- 
quired to be filed 'within three months from date 
of settlement, if the land was surveyed, or within 
three months after survey, if the land was unsur- 
veyed at the time of settlemmt. Thirty months 
'■hereafter are allowed in which to prove up and 
pay for the land. Actual residence for a period 
of six months at least is required, with cultivation 
and improvement of the land, and the proof sub- 
mitted must be similar to that required under the 
homestead law. 

It is not expected that a settler will break and 
cultivate every acre of his claim, nor is there any 
established amount of labor that is required to be 
performed. The sufficiency of residence and im- 
provement is a question of fact to be decided from 
the circumstances of each case; and the Govern- 
ment only requires satisfactory proof that the 
claimant has acted in good faith and done what 
he was reasonably expected to do. This is so 
under both the homestead and pre-emption laws. 

Any person who is the head of a family, or, if 
single, twenty-one years of age, a citizen of the 
United States, or who has declared his intention 
of becoming a citizen, may make an entry under 
the timber-culture, or, as it is commonly termed, 
“ tree-claim” law. The claimant is required to 
take out preliminary papers, as in a homestead, 
and this is done by signing an application setting 
forth the land selected, and making affidavit 
that the tract applied for is prairie land, and is 
taken for the purpose of cultivating timber. The 
fees required to be paid are 310, if the tract 
entered lie more than eighty acres, and $5 if 
eighty acres or less. The commission also re- 
quired to be paid is $4 at the date of entry, and 
a like sum when the claim is “ proved up.” 
Entries under this law are restricted to 100 acres. 

The claimant (if he enters 100 acres) is then 
required to break or plough five acres during 
the first year, and five acres more during the 
second year. The five acres ploughed the first 
year are required to be cultivated by raising a 
crop during the second year, and to be planted in 
timber, seeds or cuttings during the third year. 


| The live acres broken during the second year are 
! required to be cultivated during the third year, 

1 and to be planted in timber, seeds or cuttings 
during the fourth year. The tracts embraced in 
entries of a less quantity than one quarter section 
(160 acres) are required to be ploughed or broken, 
cultivated and planted in trees, tree-seeds, or 
cuttings, during the same period, and to the same 
extent, in proportion to their total areas, as is 
provided for in entries of a quarter section. 

No final certificate will be given or patent 
issued for the “ tree-claim” land until the ex- 
piration of eight years from the date of entry. 
At the expiration of that time, or at any time 
within five years thereafter, it must be shown that 
the claimant has planted, and for not less than 
eight years has cultivated and protected, the re- 
quired quantity of trees. The number required 
to have been planted is 2,700 trees to the acre, 
and at the time of proving up there must be grow- 
ing at least. 675 living and thrifty trees to each 
acre. In other words, at. the end of the time al- 
lowed, the settler must have, on a 1 60-acre tract 
6,750 trees, or on an eighty-acre tract, 3,375 
trees, and 1.688 on a forty. • The requirements of 
law pertaining to an entry of 120 acres are the 
same as for an eighty-acre tract and a forty-acre 
tract combined. Trees, seeds and cuttings can be 
obtained in the Territory at reasonable cost. No 
residence on the land, nor in fact in the Territory, 
is required under the timber-culture laws. 

When a homestead settler dies before the con- 
summation of his claim, the widow, or, in case 
of her death, the heirs, may continue settlement 
or cultivation and obtain title If both parents 
die, leaving infant children, the homestead may 
be sold for cash [or the benefit of such children : 
or the children may continue settlement or culti- 
vation and receive title. If a pre-emptor dies 
before completing his claim, the title may be 
perfected by the executor, administrator, or one 
of the heirs, and the title will pass to “ the 
heirs” of the deceased claimant. Under the tim- 
ber-cultuie laws the land passes “ to the heirs 
or legal representatives” in case of the death of 
the original claimant. 

Under the laws referred to any person coming 
within their provisions can become the owner of 
480 acres of land. Should the settler not feel 
able to “ pre-empt,” he can secure 320 acres under 
the homestead and timber-culture laws. Claims 
taken under these laws are exempt from taxation 
until patents are issued, and are not liable for 
1 debts contracted prior to that time. 





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